Retribution
by Anhinga1
Summary: My continuation of the Trigun series. It was originally posted last year and contains spoilers for the whole series. Some changes have been made.
1. 1

RETRIBUTION

  


  


The Trigun story and all of the characters are not mine. They belong to Yasuhiro 

Nightow and all the folks in the credits of the videos. I have made no money 

from this story and am not looking to make any kind of money in the near future. 

Enjoy. 

  


"He was wounded less severely than his brother," said Dr. Peliquine as he 

exited the operating room. Two women, Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson, got 

up out of their waiting room chairs. 

  


"He's going to be okay then?" asked the taller of the two. 

  


"Considering some of those scars he has, these bullet wounds probably felt like 

pin pricks. His brother only had one previous injury. They look so much alike. 

I'm surprised he didn't get mistaken for Vash the Stampede more often. Whoever 

shot at them wanted them both alive. There were no serious abdominal or head 

wounds," said the short doctor as he took off his hair net from his head. 

  


"Someone else shot at them?" Milly asked. "But I thought Mr. Vash ... Ouch!" 

  


"Vash has been ambushed before, Milly. A couple of dumb bounty hunters probably 

thought they'd get two bounties for the both of them heh heh ..." Meryl weakly 

laughed as she stepped on her partner's foot. 

  


"Vash had walked on his wounds for several days and his previous wounds 

complicated the situation, but he will heal. These two are extremely lucky you 

women brought them here. They were hit with extremely powerful weapons. I'm not 

surprised that village doctor told you to come here. These wounds were more 

serious than the ones Vash recovered from before. One man must have attacked 

Vash, but Knives was hit with different types of bullets. There were a dozen 

smaller bullets in his arms Dr. Hale had to take out. The bullets that hit 

Knive's legs passed right through. With those wounds on his legs and arms, he 

won't be moving around for quite a while. I don't expect him to regain 

consciousness for several days." 

  


Doctor Peliquine turned away from the two women and started washing his hands in a 

sink. 

  


"When do you think we will be able to see Vash, doctor?" Meryl asked as she 

peeked into the window to the operating room. Inside a scrub nurse cleaned the sharp surgical instruments as another nurse collected bloody blue sheets off of the operating 

table. Vash had already been wheeled out to another room. 

  


"He's been put in the recovery room with his brother." The doctor looked at the 

two insurance agents sternly. "I should be reporting him to sheriff right now, 

him and his brother. Both of you swear that Vash isn't the berzerking murderer 

the government says he is, and from his conduct while he was in that other town, 

I have to believe you. That was the only town in the L.R. area without mass 

disappearances, and both of you swear that they'll completely stop now." 

Vash and Knives' wounds had been too serious for the small town doctor to handle 

so the insurance girls had taken him to the nearest town with a large hospital, Stansberg. 

Several townspeople had followed them and spread the news that Vash the Stampede 

was in town. The doctor finished washing his hands and turned toward the two women.

  


"If anything like that happens again, I will hold you two personally 

responsible. Vash is only alive because you two brought him to me. I want no one 

else hurt or killed because of this man, do you understand?" 

  


"Understood, doctor," said Milly quietly. 

  


"My parents disappeared in Carlyle town 10 iles away when you say Vash was still 

unconscious in that village safe-house. If he didn't do it then, I don't 

understand how you can say that those disappearances will stop." The doctor's 

composure was ruffled, but he remained polite enough to show the two agents to the 

waiting area outside the recovery room. 

  


Milly looked in to the recovery area through a small window in the door. "Meryl, 

Vash is in there on his own gurney next to Knives. That's posh. I had to wait 

for all my sisters to move out before I got my own bed." 

  


Meryl stood on her tip-toes and peered into the white room. Electronic medical 

equipment was piled high in each corner. Shelves were filled with boxes of latex 

gloves, needles, tongue depressors, and all sorts of stock medical supplies. 

Knives and Vash were the only two patients in the room. They each lay on a 

gurney on either side of a sink that hung on the far side of the wall. Each man 

was hooked up to their own machines measuring breathing and heart activity. 

Meryl pressed her ear to the window. The beeps coming from the machines were 

almost synchronized. The women waited at the window, observing the peaceful 

breathing of the two injured plant beings.

  


"What are we going to do when they wake up?" asked Milly. 

  


"I don't know," said Meryl. "Knives has been trying to ..." 

Meryl looked down the hallway to make sure they were alone. The passage to the 

waiting are was empty except for a small perky flower painting and a spare 

gurney pushed next to the wall. She continued, "Knives has been trying to 

debauch Vash for a long time. I don't know what we can do to help either of 

them. Where can they go and be safe?" 

  


"That's a tough question, Meryl. Maybe the chief can help us out." 

  


"I have to tell him about everything in our next report, everything about 

Knives. Chief always said to keep Vash moving from city to city, but Vash wanted 

to keep moving back then. What is he going to do now that he has Knives?"

Things weren't exactly simple for the agents before, but now they were 

responsible for two incredibly powerful plant beings, and this new one was a 

psychopath with a deadly revulsion of the human species. 

  


"Milly, whatever happens we should definitely get a raise." 

  


"I agree completely. We'll have to ask for one in the next report." 

After about a half hour Vash woke up. He groaned and slowly sat up. With slow 

groggy motions he lifted up the blanket covering his legs. He face brightened as 

he counted his usual number of limbs. Meryl tapped at the window. Vash looked 

towards them, startled, but he smiled when he saw the two agents and he vaguely 

gestured for them to come in. They entered the room quietly and went to Vash's 

bedside. Up close Vash looked utterly exhausted. His hair was sweaty, matted and 

spiked out in several new directions. His usually bright aqua eyes were puffed 

and surrounded by dark irritated blotches. 

  


"You look terrible Mr. Vash," Milly quietly whispered. 

  


"Blamppla," replied Vash as he slumped forward. 

  


"I have to agree with you, Milly,"said Meryl. 

  


The insurance girls could see new bandages covering his already scarred 

shoulders. Milly gently pushed him back against his pillow and adjusted his 

blanket.

  


"Gnnarum." said Vash as he turned to look at his visitors. "Slrurun Nive?" 

  


"He's right over there," said Meryl. She pointed across to the comatose, 

drooling lunatic. Vash turned in the indicated direction and smiled broadly. 

  


"Therumvis." The smile dissolved from his face as he hung his head over the edge 

of the bed and puked . "That mustn't have been a very good soup we gave him 

before surgery. I'll go find a nurse," said Meryl. She left the room and headed 

down the hallway back to the operating room. Milly picked up a basin and grabbed 

the collar of Vash's hospital gown. 

  


"Don't worry, Mr. Vash. You've recovered from worse than this!" Milly cheerfully 

dragged Vash's head up and set the basin in front of him. Vash puked a few more 

times. 

  


"Crn I schlave thum vata?" 

  


"Sure, Mr. Vash!" Milly filled a cup with water from the small shiny sink and 

held it up to Vash's lips. He took the cup in his hands, drank a bit, spat it 

out, drank a bit more, and swallowed loudly. 

  


"Furn better." 

  


Milly fluffed his pillow, took the cup from his hands and set it down on the 

table next to his bed. Vash lay back down and closed his eyes. 

  


"Nef sleep." 

  


"You do, so I'll just put this basin right on the table next to the water in 

case you need it. Then you won't have to puke on the floor again." 

  


"Urn hunh." 

  


Milly washed out the basin and set it on the table. Meryl came back a little 

later with a middle-aged black haired nurse carrying a bucket and mop. Her name 

tag said Nurse Mirada. Vash was asleep again. The nurse checked the readings on 

the instruments and wiped the drool off of Knives' face. 

  


"Usually we warn patients to not eat right before surgery but when you have an 

emergencies like these two, you just have to be happy they come out of it 

alive," said the nurse as she mopped up the mess. 

  


"Mr. Vash is a very lucky man," said Milly. 

  


The nurse turned and looked at Vash's hideously scarred arms. 

  


"If he has luck then I must be the luckiest person alive." 

  


"He is lucky," said Meryl. "Very lucky, any normal man would've..." 

The nurse interrupted sharply, "... wouldn't be stupid enough to stay in an area 

like this. There are a lot of angry people who want him dead, not for the 

reward, but for revenge. My conscious and my medical oath prevent me from 

helping anyone commit murder, even if they are my neighbor." She tightened her 

lips and propped up Knives' head in a non-drooling position. 

  


"It's a hard job, keeping people alive on this planet. We're not supposed to 

allow this, but you two can guard them in their room until they're ready to be 

released. I hope these two appreciate what you're doing for them. I'll check and 

see if their room is ready." She left the room, taking the bucket and mop with 

her. 

  


"Meryl, I'm scared. A whole town hasn't been after Vash since ....." said Milly. 

Meryl deftly drew a derringer out from under cloak and flicked a piece of lint 

off the barrel as she interrupted her worried partner. 

  


"Vash is in no condition to fight. We're just going to have to defend them both 

on our own tonight. Is your stun gun working?" 

Milly hauled the huge weapon out from under her dress. 

  


"Sure is Meryl!" 

  


" I promise that we're not going to lose Vash no matter how many bounty hunters 

there are or how many times Vash tries to get us to leave. We're not going to 

stay behind. Wolfwood died that way and we're not going to let that happen to 

Vash."

  


A tear drifted from the the big agent's eye. 

  


"Right! No matter what we're following!" 

The agents heard footsteps coming from the corridor. Each had just enough time 

to put their weapons away before the nurse Mirado entered the room. 

  


"Their room is ready," 

  


The nurse said as she unhooked Vash and Knives from the machines. She kicked up the break on Knive's gurney and addressed Milly. 

  


"You're a big girl, you can take the other patient." The nurse wheeled Knives 

while Milly followed her pushing Vash's gurney. 

  


"Which room are we going to?" asked Meryl. 

Nurse Mirado stopped and whispered to Meryl. "Seven A, it's the room furthest 

away from Doctor Peliquine's own office. He doesn't want any stray bullets 

damaging his records." 

  


Meryl cringed. "I'll meet you there," she whispered.

  


She went back to the operating room waiting area, picked up the agents' 

suitcases, and set off down the corridor to find room seven A. After searching 

eight corridors and ending back up at the operating waiting room three times she 

found herself outside Doctor Peliquine's office. She was about to knock on the 

door when she heard doctor Peliquine talking. 

  


"I don't know what they were. I've never seen such strong bone structure and 

dense muscles in a human before, and their hair structure, its more like a 

feather if you look at it right at the root. That's the only way it can stick up 

like that all on its own. Look through the microscope yourself." 

Meryl heard a chair slide across the floor. No one spoke for several moments.

  


"I have to agree with you on this one. What about their organs?" said an unknown 

man. 

  


"I only opened up Mr. Vash. He won't notice the extra scar, but I confirmed the 

shape of the organs in his brother with an x-ray." 

Meryl heard shuffling of papers and the slippery swish of x-rays rubbing against 

each other. Dr. Peliquine spoke again. 

  


"You can see here above the heart, the breast plate and ribs are thicker and 

wider than normal. Its a design that more completely protects the heart. The 

heart walls are thicker and stronger on both walls. This man's heart can 

withstand much greater trauma and oxygenate his blood much quicker that normal 

humans." 

  


Again there was the sound of the shuffling of x-rays. One of the men flicked a 

switch. 

  


"Those aren't the most startling differences. Look at this muscle biopsy. Nerve 

density is 50 times greater than the average human. I have my technician 

isolating specific nerves from Vash's arm. He'll be testing their 

conductivity as well as the molecular composition. What I expect is that we have 

a couple of men with extremely strong, resilient, powerful bodies, with reflexes 

beyond what any normal human could possibly be capable of." 

  


"Are you sure they're even of human stock?" said the unknown man. 

  


"Well, their reproductive organs look in order. Ethically there is only so much 

I can do at this point. Once the government has both of them, I have no doubt 

they'll execute Vash. I'd love to be in on the autopsy." 

  


"I did work for the federal government before I became a sheriff, perhaps I can 

have that arranged." 

  


Meryl had the sudden urge to puke. She also had the urge to introduce the doctor 

and sheriff to derringers 1-50 but she suppressed her boiling anger and 

continued to listen. The sheriff continued. 

  


"His brother is innocent of any crimes we know of, but they'll probably get him 

for aiding and abetting Vash for so long. Knives must have known about July and 

Augusta. There can't be any bad blood between them or else Vash could've easily 

left him in the desert." 

  


The doctor agreed. "He was very concerned about his brother when he arrived 

here. I didn't dare refuse him treatment and make him angry. I like this town 

too much to jeopardize it when Vash the Stampede is here."

Dr. Peliquine told the sheriff about how Vash arrived with his brother and the 

two insurance agents at the hospital earlier that day. 

  


"Vash actually trusts those two agents. As long as we tell them that Vash is too 

injured to move we can keep Vash here until the government's arrival, and we 

agreed to split the money on a new hospital and a new jail. The leftovers go 

right to the city and all the people who agreed not to eviscerate him today." 

  


"Yup. Sixty billion is way too much for one person. I'll spread the word that 

everybody is going to get some of the reward money if Vash is delivered live to 

the government from this town. Is this the note?" the Sheriff asked. 

  


"Yes, telling the government, their quarry is caged and ready for pick up. I'll 

have nurse Mirado take it to the courier. She gets off of her shift in the next 

few minutes." 

  


The doctor walked towards the door. Meryl jumped back just before the door 

opened. She managed to raise her arm so it looked as if she was just about to 

knock. 

"Oh, hello, doctor!" she said in a surprised, scared voice. "I got lost 

and was hoping you could direct me to Vash's room."

  


"No problem at all. I was just headed there myself."


	2. 2

The doctor said goodbye to the sheriff and walked down the hallway with Meryl who had her and her partner's suitcases in her hands The letter was in the doctor's hand. Meryl could just see the government address on the envelope and she quickly memorized it. The doctor spoke with a concerned voice. 

  


"Now, Meryl, I didn't mean to mislead you before about the severity of Vash's injuries. It'll be at least a week before he should walk and at least another week after that before he can leave." 

  


"We want what's best for Vash and his brother, doctor." 

  


"Knives is much worse off. It'll be at least a month before he can leave and six weeks before he'll be able to walk." 

  


As they walked down the hall, the doctor continued to describe to Meryl the various defective areas of Vash and Knives and the long period of time it would take them to heal. After seven turns and a trip down an elevator they arrived at the basement and room seven A. 

Milly greeted them with an ebullient smile as the doctor opened the door to the room. 

  


"Meryl! Nurse Mirado's a friend of my big, big, big brother! They knew each other when he worked in Scruffy's restaurant!" 

  


"That's wonderful, Milly!" said Meryl. 

  


Milly's family was located in so many cities it wasn't a surprise that someone, even in this little city at one time had met a Thompson. Nurse Mirado and Milly continued to chatter while the doctor examined Vash and Knives. The two men had been hooked up to simpler machines in this smaller spare room. Besides the beds, side bathroom, small machines, and an end table, there was nothing in the room, not even a window. Vash was on a bed against the far right side of the wall and Knives was sleeping on a bed in the center of the room. 

  


"Nurse," the doctor said "I just looked at the x-rays. The condition of these two is worse than I originally thought. I need you to get this letter to a courier. Dr. Jacobs from the health institute needs to get here as soon as possible." 

  


"I'll go right away, doctor!" 

  


"I'll go with you!" Milly said. 

  


Meryl's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea Milly! You need a break! " she said. 

The doctor hurried out of the room with the excuse of seeing more patients. Truthfully he wanted to get as far away as possible from the two freaks until he was sure that there wasn't anybody in the town who was going to kill them by any means necessary. 

  


"Can you wait just a minute, Milly?" said Meryl. "I'd like you to take a short letter to the courier, too, telling the chief that Vash came to this town."

Meryl, dove into her suitcase, scattering various personal items, searching for the bag containing the paper and envelopes used for their reports. 

  


"Is that okay, Sara?" said Milly, using the nurse's first name. 

  


"Here's my paper! It'll just take a second!" said a frantic Meryl as she sat on the floor, starting to scribble out a letter. 

  


"Sure. I guess I can wait a few minutes. I'll go change out of my uniform and meet you back here." 

  


"Bless you, Milly," Meryl said to herself as the nurse left the room. 

  


"Milly!" Meryl said sharply, "Milly, I need you to get that letter." Meryl explained to Milly about the doctor's cabal with the sheriff as the little agent continued scribbling her letter. Milly was horrified. 

  


"Anyone who'd want to cut up Vash is a no good evil pile of spoiled pudding!" Those we're the harshest words Meryl had ever heard come out of Milly's mouth. Meryl continued. 

  


"Calm down, Milly. Now, I've written a letter to the chief about Vash and Knives. You switch it with hers, okay Milly?"

  


"Got it, Meryl. I don't like to lie, but I'll do it for Mr. Vash." 

Meryl sealed the envelope. 

  


"Milly, this is the envelope you send. It's addressed to our chief, all right?" 

  


"Got it!" Nurse Mirado came back a few moments latter and the two ladies set off to the courier. 

  


Meryl sighed and unfastened her bedroll from the top of her suitcase. The sheriff and doctor were really only doing what they thought was best for their town, she thought. 

  


"I really can't be angry at them. If I didn't know Vash, I'd probably have brought that letter to the government myself." 

Knives was a different story. Meryl would've loved to have sent Knives far away, preferably some place cold, that lacked air, where Knives could float around until some big meteoroid... 

  


"No! I mustn't think that way." Meryl said to herself.

  


"Vash would never let that happen. He's too good to let that happen. Maybe that's why ... I know he wouldn't let anything bad happen to me, to anyone? Not if he could prevent it." 

  


She set her bed roll on the floor a good vomit's distance from Vash's bed, and returned her scattered dainty items to her suitcase. Milly wasn't renown for her slight of hand skills and if she didn't get that letter, they were going to have to leave with the two injured men pretty quickly. She packed up her bed roll. 

  


"Milly's taking a long time. It isn't that far to the courier is it? Wait! Milly's going to have to find her way back down here alone. This could take a while. How were the patients really doing?" she wondered.

  


Meryl got up and walked over to Knives. He seemed to sleep arrogantly. His nose was upturned in the same slight way as Vash's but it exuded an aristocratic snobbery and something about the tilt made Meryl feel like she really should be bowing right now. His lips were pouted slightly in a 'Get away, you insignificant blood-sucking tick' kind of way. She looked at Vash. His hair was normally awful, but this was really hideous. She unpacked a brush from her suitcase and started to brush out the snarls and matted chunks of his inhuman hair. She carefully held each section of hair as she brushed it so as to not pull or jerk his head. 

  


"After what he did the last time he woke up, I don't want him to wake up for a long time," she told herself. 

  


It was painful to know that even more scars were forming under his bandages, but maybe now that Knives was here the scars would stop accruing. 

Meryl spoke out loud, "Vash, if you'd let me cut your hair and die it a nice brown color, you'd be a lot less recognizable, especially to those dumb bounty hunters you attract." 

  


She paused, " You .... really are a ... h ... han ... handsome guy. I don't want to see you hurt like this." 

Tears started to form in her eyes. She set the brush down on the side of the bed and turned her face into the pillow, muffling her crying. She put one hand against his arm and let his body heat warm her cold fingers. 

  


"Now I have to deal with two idiots. You like making more work for me, don't you?" Her tears dried and she continued combing his hair.

Milly came back about an hour later. Meryl had finished with Vash's hair and was busy typing the full version of the report on the floor of the room. 

  


"Did you get the letter?" Meryl asked as Milly came into the room. 

  


"Yup! It's in my pocket!" 

  


Milly was burdened by several containers of take-out Chinese as well as the letter. 

  


"Sara met another nurse friend of hers on the street and she let me take the letter the rest of the way to the courier." 

Milly put the containers on the floor and took the letter out of her black coat pocket. 

  


"Here it is!" 

  


Milly handed the letter to Meryl. She grabbed it from Milly's hand and looked at the address. It was the right letter. 

  


"Thank you, Milly! You're wonderful. I'm going to suggest that the chief give you a commendation for this." 

Milly beamed. "If everything else failed, I would've used my stun gun on the courier and gotten it back." 

Meryl smiled, "That's right Milly! The more desperate the situation, the more desperate the measures that must be taken!" 

Meryl tucked the letter in her suitcase and went back to typing her report with newfound determination. The usually reserved agent actually started humming. Milly spooned out several varieties of food onto paper plates. 

  


"Foods up!" Milly yelped. 

  


Vash stirred on his bed "Hunrgh? Food? I don't think I really want to eat right now." 

  


"Mr. Vash, you're talking in real sentences!" 

  


The agents scampered over to his bed. 

  


"The doctor said you were going to be fine and then he said you really weren't going to be fine, but he was being a big jerk so we know that you are going to be just fine," explained Milly. 

  


Vash looked up at Milly with marginally opened eyes. 

  


"Thank you for letting me sleep. Is Knives ..." Vash sat up and looked around the room with opened eyes. 

  


"He's more hurt than you are, much more hurt. " said Meryl with genuine sympathy. "The doctor doesn't expect him to regain consciousness for several days." 

  


The sympathy wasn't for Knives but for Vash, and all the trouble he would have in the future with his brother.

  


"He shot my gun out of my hand. I had to hit him with Cross Punisher, or else he would've killed me with both his angel arms. I really didn't think he wanted to kill me." 

  


"You hit him with Cross Punisher? Wolfwood would be very proud of you Mr. Vash!" said Milly. 

  


"Yes, I think he would be." Vash looked away from his brother and stared at his intact right arm. 

  


"I can help him now; stop him from killing people. I know how to do it. I didn't realize it until I was carrying him back. When I was back home plant number two, Suzume, that's what I called her, she was so frightened. I hope she didn't die. I've known her for 80 years and she was never so scared before. I had to help her by ... " He looked at the women and despite his vast amount of respect for them, he knew it was a loss to discuss the intricate workings of plant engineering with them. He continued.

  


"But the gauntlet .... and then Brad ..." Vash looked at Meryl with tears in his eyes. She had no clue what he was talking about, but she gave him her most comforting look. Vash wiped the tears from his eyes. 

  


"I need to get out of here. I need to get to a plant before Knives wakes up. It won't take much time. I only need a few parts." He tried to get up but Milly pushed him back down. Meryl's comforting look turned into outright hostility.

  


"The whole town knows you're here by now and after they kill you they'll kill Knives, and Milly and I won't be able to stop them. You've just had surgery and you were puking your food up less than two hours ago. We're not letting you go anywhere. I'm not going to let a sickly, puking, sixty billion double dollar target walk out of this hospital when a whole bunch of fresh wounds you just got have barely started to heal." 

Meryl did understand the urgency of the situation though, and she did know Vash did heal quickly. 

  


"We're not going to let you out until you've had at least one good night's rest." 

  


Vash's guardians scowled at him and Milly's hand twitched in a certain way that was just warning him that she'd take out her stun gun if he even thought about making a dash for it. 

  


"Well, maybe I should stay here until I can at least dodge a bullet or two." He cowered back in his pillow and covered his head with his blanket. 

  


"Good night," he said. 

  


"Good night, Vash. Lets have some food, Milly." 

  


Vash groaned. 

  


Meryl continued, "And I'll take the first shift watching Vash. I need to finish the full report." 


	3. 3

It was 4:00 a.m. in the town of Stansberg. Nothing but the sound of peaceful 

breathing was heard in room 7A of the town's hospital. Milly Thompson lay on her 

bed roll on the floor. By the light of her tiny travel lamp she quietly took out 

a deck of cards from her suitcase and dealt them out for a game of solitaire. It 

was her turn to watch Vash. There had been no problems on Meryl's shift. If 

there had been, Milly would definitely have heard the commotion. 

  


"Meryl was no shy girl when it came to guarding Vash," thought Milly as she set 

a nine of spades on a ten of hearts. Unfortunately the feisty girl hadn't had 

the chance to tell Vash how much she actually liked him. There were too many 

unhealed wounds to deal with right now. 

  


Milly pondered, "Now should I lay down the four of diamonds on the five of clubs 

or the five of spades?" 

  


"Milly?"

  


She heard Vash whisper her name. She walked over to his bed. Vash was 

sitting almost upright and holding on to the bed rail with both hands. Even in 

the dim light she could see that his eyes were much brighter and clearer than 

the day before. 

  


"Yes, Mr. Vash?" 

  


"I need to go to the town plant. I'd like to go now. It should be safer for me 

if I leave before most of the town gets up." 

  


He waited for her reply. 

  


"That's a good idea, Mr. Vash. How much time do you think you'll need?" 

  


"About two hours. It shouldn't take any longer than that. The plant should have 

all the tools there. We can be back before Meryl gets up." 

  


"Do you promise you'll come right back here when you're done? If you leave, 

Meryl and I will be left alone with Knives." 

  


"I really don't want that to happen, Milly. I promise you, I'll come back." 

  


"All right then. You can borrow some of my clothes and we'll leave." 

  


From her suitcase, Milly quietly took out an extra pair of pants, suspenders, 

and shirt for Vash. Milly left the room while he dressed in the dim light of her 

travel lamp. Milly's clothing was not exactly a great fit, the back of the pants 

sagged and the legs were a bit short but it was good enough for an early morning 

walk in darkness. Unfortunately he'd have to go barefoot. Vash joined Milly in 

the hallway and gently shut the door to room 7A behind him. 

Milly showed Vash the way out of the hospital. Fortunately it was early enough 

that they could duck into a empty corridor whenever they heard someone walking 

towards them. Undetected, they reached the outside of the hospital. They could 

see the plant; it was only about a mile away. They quickly walked toward it. 

Happy songs drifted out from various bakeries along the way but otherwise the 

streets were empty. As they walked, Milly filled in Vash on the specifics of the 

plot of the Sheriff and Dr. Peliquine to get the sixty billion double dollars 

for the town. 

  


"So don't believe him, Mr. Vash, if he says you're too sick to walk," said 

  


Milly. "I won't Milly." 

  


They reached the huge plant building. Vash could feel the presence of a healthy, 

content plant being inside. 

  


"Milly, you wait outside. Just pretend you're waiting for that last bakery we 

passed to open." 

  


"Will you buy me a pastry when you get out?" 

  


"I didn't bring any money with me." He thought for a moment. "One second." 

Vash felt the pockets of his borrowed pants and took out a couple of crumpled 

bills.

  


"Here's two double dollars. I'll pay you back when we get back to the hospital." 

  


He handed the happy girl the money and darted inside the plant. Milly walked 

back to the nearest bakery shop and sat on the outside steps. 

  


"A pudding filled doughnut would be just perfect," she thought.

Vash tread quietly and carefully around the plant. Eventually he found an 

unlocked entrance. 

  


"They really should have somebody here at all hours," Vash thought to himself. 

  


Vash had often taken the late-night plant duty back home. He didn't mind losing 

the sleep and not surprisingly the plants had taken a liking to him. Vash 

reached the main plant room and scoured the shelves for the tools he'd need. 

After picking up a wrench-like object, and a large pair of wire cutters he 

walked over to the plant bulb. He set down his tools and put his hand on the 

glass. Her power was still strong, untaxed by the residents of this medium sized 

town. Slowly she glided over to him. This was possibly the first contact she had 

had with any other being since she was put in this bulb well over a century ago. 

They talked through delicate electrical pulses and beams. She was fine with the 

idea. She was healthy and could emit a whole range of power levels. Dampening 

down her own power for a little while wouldn't be a problem. Vash thanked her 

and took his hand off the glass. He gathered his tools and crouched down on the 

floor. He opened a small door underneath the bulb that lead to the complex inner 

workings of the interface between the plant and the instruments that controlled 

her. He crawled through the opening taking the tools in behind him. 

The plant behaved beautifully. An hour later Vash emerged with four pieces of 

curved metal. Each piece was about 40cm long and 1cm thick. If all four pieces 

were put together they would've looked almost like the metal rim of a wagon 

wheel. The outside of the metal was a coppery orange but the inside had a 

purple-blue tone that gleamed in the light. Vash was careful to touch the metal 

only on the outside. He set the pieces down on the ground and picked up several 

more tools including a large pair of gloves from the shelves. He put the gloves 

on and picked up a soldering iron. He picked up a spool of metal and wrapped 

several coils of its thin silvery metal around one of the coppery curves. He cut 

off the wrapped section of coiled metal from the spool and soldered the two ends 

of the looped metal together, creating a circle of looped silvery wire around 

the copper. 

  


Vash found another room in the plant with small square sheets of various types 

of metal. He chose several of the sheets and went back to the main plant room. 

He cut off circular and rectangular sections of metal from the sheets and 

soldered them to the outside of the curved metal. When he was finished making 

the additions he bent the metal into a half circle. Vash set the altered plant 

dampener on the ground, then took off his gloves, unbuttoned the cuff of his 

angel arm, and pushed his shirt all the way up to his shoulder. He sat down on 

the floor and started to breathe deeply gathering his courage. He picked up the 

device and held it over his exposed arm. The angel arm effect started to appear 

at his fingertips. He lowered the instrument closer. Vash screamed as 

purple-blue sparks exploded from his angel arm. The fragments of light traveled 

out for a split second before arcing inward drawn into the device's silvery 

coil. Struggling against the draw of the device, Vash pulled his arm away and 

dropped the device on the floor. The angel arm effect and sparks completely 

disappeared from his arm as Vash fainted on the floor. A few minutes later Vash 

awoke and looked at the device lying in front of him. 

  


"It's perfect." 

  


Vash buttoned his sleeve, put his gloves back on and made another addition to 

the dampener. He soldered a four centimeter spike of silvery metal to the new 

coils so that the spike pointed into the center. Vash made three more of these 

devices from the other pieces of the plant, but on the fourth device he left off 

the spike. Vash took the spikeless dampener, and several new tools back 

underneath the plant. A half hour later he emerged with the tools. He put each 

tool back in the exact place he found it and swept up the metal shavings and 

bits of wire off of the floor. 

  


Vash walked back to the plant being and raised his hand to glass. She came to 

him quicker this time; their trust was established. He felt her energy increase 

to its usual level as he thanked her for letting him modify the dampener. He 

removed his hand and the plant being drifted off to the center of her bulb. It 

was almost seven o'clock as Vash left the plant building. He saw Milly sitting 

on the steps of the bakery cheerfully chomping on a cream puff. 

  


"It's really good and cheap, Mr. Vash. Would you like one?"

  


Vash patted his stomach. 

  


"Not yet Milly."

  


A few townsfolk had woken up and were heading towards the market area near the 

hospital. 

  


"Ooh! Those are pretty Mr. Vash. What are they?" said Milly, pointing to the 

coppery circles of metal. 

  


"Something for Knives. We need to get back right away." 

  


He helped Milly up off the steps and they hurried back to the hospital. They 

slipped through the hallways and reached the basement room undetected. Meryl was 

still sleeping. 

  


Vash nudged her with his foot and whispered, "Meryl, wake up. There's a lot of 

work I need you to do today." 

  


"Hmm ... work?" she said as she lifted up her groggy head and opened her eyes. 

  


Her lethargic expression changed into one of astonishment when she saw Vash 

standing in front of her, barefoot, wearing Milly's clothing. 

  


"Vash? You're up? Huh? What happened? Oh! That blouse actually looks good on 

you... Wait a second." 

  


Meryl noticed the dust on his feet, pant legs and the copper metal pieces in his 

hands. 

  


"Have you been outside already? You were supposed to get a good night's rest," 

she said angrily. 

  


"Its all right. I went with Vash. We left early so the town wouldn't fill him 

with bullet holes when they got up," chirped Milly. 

  


"Oh, um, hmmm," said Meryl, still a little drowsy. "You got back okay. I guess 

that's fine then. Did any one see you?" 

  


"Maybe. If they did, they didn't do anything about it," said Vash. 

  


"Good. Then get back into bed so the doctor still thinks you're still sick, and 

then you can tell us what you need us to do today." 

  


Meryl went in the bathroom to change out of her pajamas while Vash shooed Milly 

into the hallway so he could get back into his hospital gown. 

  


"That blouse actually did look pretty good," thought Milly. "Meryl and I are 

going to have to make him some new clothes. I wonder what happened to his red 

coat?" 

  


(Vash's coat had blown into the next town and was adopted as a new home by a 

certain black cat. Inside it, a large brood of kittens was currently being 

raised.) 

  


A few minutes later, Milly heard the elevator ding. The door opened and Dr. 

Peliquine walked out. 

  


"Good morning, Milly!" said the doctor "Good morning Dr. Peliquine." 

  


"How were things down here last night?" asked the doctor. 

  


The doctor had his large black medical bag with him. 

  


"Vash and Knives are looking as wretched as ever!" 

  


"Sorry to hear that. I'll have to start giving Vash some medication to help with 

the healing then." 

  


Milly knocked on the door. "You done changing, Meryl? The doctor is here to see 

the boys." 

  


"Yes," came Meryl's voice from the other side. 

  


Milly opened the door and admitted the doctor into the room. Vash was back on 

his bed, hooked to the machines just as before. Meryl was rolling up her bed 

roll. 

  


"Mr. Vash, how are feeling this morning?" questioned the doctor as he walked 

over to Vash's bed. 

  


Vash gave the doctor an anemic smile and spoke with a weak broken voice. "Better 

I think. Wounds still hurt a lot, doctor. I didn't sleep very well." 

Dr. Peliquine changed the bandages on each of Vash's wounds checking each wound 

for signs of infection. 

  


"Vash, your wounds really haven't healed as much as I would've liked them too. 

I'd like to give you a shot to help you sleep and relax your muscles." 

  


"Are you sure that's necessary, doctor?" said Meryl quickly. "Couldn't you wait 

another day to see if he improves?" 

  


"This really should be done as soon as possible to give him the greatest chance 

of a full recovery." 

  


The doctor took out a syringe from his bag. Meryl peered at it. He set the 

syringe on the table in between Knives and Vash. The doctor examined and changed 

the bandages on Knives wounds. 

  


"Knives hasn't healed much at all. The bleeding has stopped but he just isn't 

healing. Also the wound in his right rectus femoris looks inflamed." 

  


"What's a rectus femoris?" asked Milly. 

  


"It's a muscle on the front of the thigh," answered the doctor. 

  


He went into his bag and pulled out another syringe. 

  


"I'll send the nurse down to give the shots. I'll be leaving this morning to go 

to a wedding so I will be out of the office for the rest of the day." 

Just then nurse Mirado walked into the room. 

  


"Oh, nurse Mirado, I was just going to call you down here. I changed the 

bandages of the patients myself. They both need a shot of meprolamate. The 

syringes are on the table," he said as he left the room with his bag. 

Vash gave Meryl a pleading look. 

  


"Get me out of this," it said to her. The nurse picked up a syringe, flicked it 

several times and walked over to Vash. He winced. 

  


"Um, nurse?" 

  


"Yes, Meryl?" 

  


"Milly and I don't think you should give that shot to Vash."

  


"We definitely don't," added Milly. 

  


"Really, why?" said the nurse, with genuine concern. 

  


"Because, I really don't want to say this but, I'm sure doctor Peliquine is a 

good man on some level ... " 

  


Milly growled. 

  


Meryl continued "but, we think he may harm Vash and Knives in order to get the 

reward money." 

  


"Are you sure? I mean, that's awful if it's true. Murder is still illegal on 

this planet isn't it?" said the nurse. 

  


She looked at Milly, and she nodded in agreement. 

  


Meryl continued. 

  


"I heard him talking in his office yesterday. He talked about the kinds of 

things that would be done with the reward money, and he said that he really 

wanted to see Vash dead." 

  


The nurse looked down at the two syringes. 

  


"We've seen with our own eyes that the deaths and damage that have been blamed 

on Vash we're caused by someone else. He really isn't to blame, but because the 

rumors are so strong, he'll die if he's caught by the government. If the doctor 

doesn't kill him now, when he's injured, he'll miss his chance at the reward 

money. Nurse Mirado, Vash doesn't deserve to die. He and Knives really aren't 

doing as badly as the doctor say's they are. I'll show you he's lying." 

  


Meryl walked over to Knives and unbandaged his thigh. 

  


"Vash really is one of the most caring people I've met." said Milly. Meryl 

looked at Knives wound. 

  


"Dr. Peliquine said that Knives wounds weren't healing and that his ... his .. 

front right thigh was inflamed. You look." 

  


The nurse set the syringes back down on the table and looked at the wound. She 

was astonished. 

  


"This isn't inflamed at all. It looks like this wound has had a week to heal."

  


Vash breathed a sigh of relief. Milly looked at the nurse sympathetically and 

held her hand. 

  


"We don't want you to kill an innocent man, Sara, and you don't want to either. 

I know you're a good person." 

  


"If I didn't know your family, I'd have a hard time believing this, Milly, but I 

know you wouldn't lie. It was strange for the doctor to mention this wedding 

just today. If these two are innocent, and with me giving the medication, I'd be 

the one going to jail." The nurse was pensive as she looked back to the 

syringes. 

  


"I'll do this. I'll have the lab upstairs analyze what's really in those 

syringes. They should have the results back by this evening." 

The nurse picked up the syringes and walked towards the door. At the doorway she 

looked back at Vash. 

  


"If you really are a killer, you sure have these two fooled," she said and then 

she left the room and headed back to the elevator.

  


"Thank you, Meryl, Milly," said Vash. 

  


He did have the power to destroy cities and kill thousands of people but without 

these two women he would have been chopped up by the government or a bounty 

hunter a long time ago. Sometimes he forgot that. 

  


"Sara is a good women," said Milly. "My brother always said she had a kind heart 

and lot of good common sense." 

  


Meryl looked at Vash. That confident look he'd had on his face this morning was 

gone. 

  


"The last thing I want is some money-grubbing doctor sticking you with needles," 

she said sternly. "Let's get back to business. What kind of work do you need us 

to do today?" she asked.

  


"We need to get out of here tonight," he said. 

  


Meryl and Milly agreed. 

  


"Knives can't wake up in a place like this. You two need to get some food for a 

long trip. We need to go back home, to my home. It's the only place where Knives 

can be kept safe." 

  


"Vash," said Meryl, "didn't they throw you out?" 

  


"I have Knives now. Doc will let me back in. I've known him for 80 years. He 

knows no more cities will be destroyed." 

  


Meryl and Milly looked at each other warily. They really hoped that what he said 

was true. The trio discussed the kinds of rations and other accouterments they'd 

need for the long trip. Meryl and Milly divvied up the list between them. 

  


"Are you sure you don't want one of us to stay here with you?" asked Meryl. "No. 

I'll be fine," said Vash. "The nurse won't be back until this evening and the 

doctor is gone. Besides, I can catch up on my beauty sleep." He laughed his 

maniacal laugh. 

"Goodbye, Vash," said the two agents as they left the room. 

  


"That was the first time Vash had laughed in a long while. It's nice to hear 

again," thought Meryl as she walked down to the elevator with Milly. 

  


After the agent left, Vash got out of bed and went over to Meryl's suitcase. He 

opened it and carefully retrieved two of the copper bands Meryl had hidden 

there. He walked over to Knives. He put his hand on Knives' head. He could feel 

the consciousness of Knives' mind safely placed far back into a deep state of 

healing. What Vash was about to do was going to hurt. Badly. There was no risk 

of his brother waking up. He straightened one dampener. Vash held it just below 

where his brother's arm met the shoulder. It was poised so the metal spike 

pointed straight in the center of the arm. Vash breathed slowly and deeply and 

thought about Rem and the hundreds of other people Knives had killed. Now it was 

going to stop.

  


Vash slammed the copper band down onto his brothers arm. He hammered it in with 

his fist until he was sure the spike could go no further and had penetrated the 

bone of the arm. Vash bent the band around his brother's arm so the ends of the 

band touched on the other side. Blood trickled out from underneath the copper 

band. Vash repeated the process on his brother's other arm and another trickle 

of blood appeared . Knives remained unconscious. Vash wiped the blood off his 

brother's arms with the white bed sheet. 

  


"This should've happened a long time ago, brother," Vash said with a low 

stinging sarcastic bite. "I've taken care of Knives, Rem." 

  


Vash's third band was safely wrapped up in Meryl's suitcase. He climbed back up 

on his bed. For the first time in many, many years Vash slept soundly. 

Several hours later Vash was startled out of his sleep as the tiny insurance 

agent pulled on his arm. 

  


"Wake up, Vash. It's midnight. We're ready to go. We've already made an escape 

plan. Sara helped." 

  


The agents helped Vash out of bed. Meryl and Milly were dressed in nurse 

uniforms. They told Vash their escape plan. Meryl brought in a spare gurney that 

had been placed outside the room. Vash covered his brother with the slightly 

bloodied white bed sheet and Milly and Vash lifted him up and set him on the 

gurney. Vash stayed in room while Meryl and Milly wheeled the gurney out and up 

into the hospital. 

  


"Headed to the funeral parlor with Vash the Stampede and his brother," Meryl 

said to any nosy passers by. 

  


Meryl had already brought their car around to the front of the hospital. They 

laid Knives down on the back seat of the car. The agents went back in the 

hospital to retrieve Vash in the same manner. Back in the basement, Vash got on 

the gurney and Milly covered him with his bed sheet. They pushed him out to the 

elevator and through the hallways. They were stopped by another doctor at the 

hospital. 

  


"Vash the Stampede, I don't believe it." 

  


"Yup," said Milly. 

  


The doctor pulled the sheet up. There was a very good impression of a dead man 

underneath. 

  


"What did he die of?" 

  


"Dr. Peliquine prescribed them an antibiotic injection. We can only guess they 

were both allergic to it," said Meryl. 

  


"Now that we're out of a job we thought we'd both become nurses," added Milly. 

  


"Well, mistakes do happen. Glad you could join the crew, ladies." 

The doctor smiled and walked off down the corridor. Milly pulled the sheet back 

over Vash's head. They hurried out the hospital and placed Vash in the back seat 

with Knives. Meryl took the wheel and Milly took the shotgun seat. They quietly 

drove to the outside of town and sped away through the desert. 


	4. 4

Several days later three of the five silver moons were out in the chilly early evening when the insurance agents' car pulled up to a large pile of boulders outside of the broken 

seeds ship. They had taken no chances of being discovered on the journey here. 

Vash stayed with Knives in the back of the car and he always kept 

one hand on his brother's forehead making sure that the psychotic consciousness 

was still deeply buried. 

  


Vash got out of the car and looked at the huge seeds ship from behind a boulder. 

There was only one main entrance. All other cracks and rips in the surface had 

been quickly mended after the fall. Four guards patrolled on top of the metal 

archway above the entrance. Each guard had a gun in hand, and one wore infrared 

goggles. One guard stood behind an unlit search light. Two guards were older. 

Vash knew those two, Kevin and James, for about 25 years before he left. The 

other guards he didn't recognize. 

  


"I don't think you should go alone,Vash," Meryl suddenly said beside him. He 

looked at her, incensed by her presence. 

  


"Get back in the car. It may be more dangerous for you than me." 

  


"No," she whispered, "I'm not the one worth $$60 billion dead." 

  


Vash put one hand over Meryl's mouth, picked her up by her cloak collar and 

walked back to the car. Meryl stayed quiet and didn't struggle, afraid of 

alerting the guards. Vash strapped her down with her seat belt and gave both 

insurance agents an icy glare. 

  


"Both of you are staying here. I don't know what's happened since the ship 

crashed. I know two of the guards but others are new. I don't know what will 

happen when I talk to them." 

  


Meryl opened her mouth to speak. 

  


"Shhhh," Vash whispered. 

  


Vash walked up to the entrance slowly, his hands raised. The huge bright search 

light shone on him as he walked towards the guards. Vash quickly closed his eyes 

from the intense glare. 

  


"Stop where you are," an unknown voice shouted from beyond the light. Vash heard 

Kevin speak.

  


"No one is allowed entrance into the city until ... Shit ... Is that you, Vash? 

Of course it's you. Jason, shut the light off." 

  


"Vash the Stampede is back? I should shoot the bastard right now, " said a new 

younger voice. He heard the sound of a gun being cocked. Vash tensed. 

  


"Put that away, Michael. He's harmless." 

  


A shot was fired. Vash fell to the ground, dodging the bullet. 

  


"Stop it, you two," James yelled.

  


A scuffle occurred between the men behind the light. Eventually the light was 

turned off. 

  


"You two are relieved of duty. Go. Now," Vash heard Kevin say. 

  


"You can get up, Vash," shouted James. 

  


Vash picked himself up off the ground and walked toward the gate. Kevin and 

James disappeared from the top of the archway. The doors to the large gate 

opened shortly thereafter and Kevin and James appeared beyond the opened door. 

Kevin was about forty, a burly man with brown hair, brown eyes and a right hook 

that could send any normal man to the floor in one blow. Vash was the only 

person who could beat him at arm wrestling. James was about 50 with black hair, 

a smaller build, and was more of a scientist than Kevin. Vash had taught James 

quite a bit about plant engineering before he left. 

  


Vash walked up to the two men. Both men looked to be happy at his return. James 

spoke, "The younger ones, like Jason and Michael, don't understand who you are, 

Vash. They blame you for all the deaths that occurred here." 

  


"Doc's tried to explain to them, but they refuse to believe it," said Kevin, "What's the latest news on Knives?" 

  


"Is he dead?" added James, hastily. 

  


"He isn't dead," said Vash. Both men looked saddened at the news. 

  


"Did you find him?" asked James. 

  


"Yes, I figured out how to take away his power away without killing him. He's 

unconscious right now. I had to shoot him a few times but he'll survive. He's in 

the back seat of a car parked out beyond the rocks." 

  


Vash turned around and gestured toward the rocks. He saw two feminine faces 

peeking out from behind a bolder. 

"Who are your friends?" asked Kevin. 

  


"You haven't come back with a women before, and now you've got two?" James 

snickered. 

  


Vash chose not to answer the question. 

  


"We need to bring Knives in. This is the only place he and I can be safe. Can we 

come in?" 

  


"Are you bringing those two with you?" James gestured at the boulder that had 

sprouted feminine heads. 

  


"Meryl, Milly, you can come out now," Vash shouted. He turned back to his old 

friends. 

  


"These two are insurance agents. It's their job to follow me and try and prevent 

property damage and loss of life. There very helpful, actually. I wouldn't be 

alive if they weren't with me. The tall one's a sweetie but the 

short one, when she gets pissed off she's got a punch that would put you on the 

ground." Vash gestured at Kevin. 

  


Kevin laughed, "You'll have to tell us more about them." 

  


Meryl shouted, "Are you okay, Vash? We heard a gunshot." 

  


"I'm okay. They missed. It's okay to come out," he shouted back. 

The agents emerged from behind the rock and walked towards the archway. 

  


"Doc shouldn't have a problem with you and Knives staying here," said James. 

  


"I'm sure he'd love to see what you did with Knives. I'm not so sure about these 

two, but it may be a good idea for you to have a couple of bodyguards around 

here." 

  


Vash sighed. Was anyplace on the planet safe for him anymore? James pressed a 

button on the archway door. 

  


"Tim, this is James. Can you get Doc up and send him to the entryway? We have an 

emergency ... Its not medical. Vash came back and has Knives with him ... All 

right, five minutes." 

  


Meryl and Milly walked up to Vash. They looked at him warily and glanced at the 

two men. 

  


"Kevin, James, this is Milly Thompson and Meryl Strife of the Bernardelli 

Insurance agency." 

  


"Hello!" said Milly cheerfully. A pained smile eked its way onto Meryl's face. 

  


"Where did that gunshot come from?" she asked Vash. 

  


"A few people aren't happy that Vash came back," said Kevin, already eyeing his 

possible future opponent. He wasn't worried. 

  


"Once you're in the city, Vash, it shouldn't be a problem." A confused 

expression crossed Vash's face at the mention of the word 'city'." 

  


"Milly, you can bring the car to the entryway. We'll be taking in Knives," said 

Vash. 

  


"Okay!" Milly trotted off back to the car. 

  


"What did you mean by city?" asked Vash. James responded.

  


"The seeds ship residents had the vessel declared its own city. We've got our 

own government, and our own set of laws. Doc's the mayor. The first law we 

passed was that no outsider could come on board without an interview and 

approval directly from the mayor. He only hears one case a week. The vast 

majority of the scum trying to come on board are grifters anyway. One plant 

engineer stayed a week about a month ago but other than that no outsider has 

been on board since that priest was here with you." 

  


"What happened to him?" asked Kevin. 

  


Vash looked down at his feet and spoke with a hushed voice. 

  


"He died a few weeks ago." 

  


The two men looked at each other, understanding that a guy like Wolfwood 

probably hadn't died of pneumonia. A short while later Milly pull up in the car. 

Kevin and James got their first look at Knives. He was still wearing his 

hospital gown and was covered up to the waist with the white hospital sheet. 

  


"Damn. He really is Vash's twin. I kinda wish he were dead, even so," thought 

Kevin. 

  


"He doesn't look like a psychopath when he's sleeping," said Vash, "but I don't 

want anybody near him when he wakes up." 

  


Just then the large inner door of the archway opened and a little old wrinkled 

man emerged. A large grin appeared on his face as he eagerly walked up to Vash. 

Meryl didn't know old men could smile so brightly.

  


"Vash! I heard you finally got Knives." The little man peered into the car and 

scanned Knives with his eyes. 

  


"What did you do to his arms, Vash?" asked the doctor. 

  


"They're modified plant dampeners. He can't focus his energy through his arms 

anymore. Externally he can't use his power. He's almost human now." 

  


"That's very clever, Vash," Doc said as he poked at the dampener. 

  


"Mr. Mayor?" said Meryl. 

  


Doc looked up and for the first time noticed the little lady standing beside 

Vash. 

  


"Milly Thompson and I would like to stay here with Vash. If that's possible." 

Vash explained the ladies job to the doctor, and praised them both for their 

kindness and dedication. Milly beamed and Meryl blushed. 

  


"You're certainly welcome here then," said Doc. "I'll start on the paperwork for 

you two ladies tomorrow." 

  


At Doc's suggestion, Vash accompanied Doc into the ship to prepare a room for 

Knives. The two agents stayed with Knives and the car. James hit the intercom 

button "Tim, were going to need the backups tonight. Jason shot at Vash. Michael 

tried to help him... yup... He's back. They were both relieved of their duty... 

Doc's coming in with him now. He brought two lady friends with him this time."

Meryl pulled back one leg and aimed at the guard's exposed left shin. Milly 

grabbed her and swung the small woman away from the guard.

  


"Sorry about that hee hee ..," the big girl said. 

  


"I'm just doing my job," grumbled Meryl straining to get away from Milly's 

grasp. "Just like us, guards," said Kevin as he winked at the feisty little 

agent. 

  


Meryl didn't appreciate the wink, but she calmed down. The guards were curious 

about the outside world and pretty soon Milly and Meryl were telling them about 

their families, past jobs, and life with Vash the Stampede. All five moons were 

out by the time the inner door to the ship opened. Vash walked out with a cart 

and he and Milly gently set Knives down on the cart's flat metal surface. Vash 

tightened one strap across his brother's chest and another around his legs. 

  


"Doc showed me where you and Milly will be staying and we fixed up the room a 

little bit," said Vash to Meryl. "Follow me, and bring you're luggage." 

Meryl and Milly got their baggage out of the trunk. 

  


"Good luck, Vash," the guards said, "We'll come by and see you tomorrow." 

  


Vash waved goodbye to guards and walked back into the ship, followed by Meryl 

and Milly. The women gaped at the metal walls of the hallways and the endless 

numbers of pipes and computer consoles. 

  


Knives' room was fifty-seven floors up, at the very top of the ship. Vash showed 

them how to use the elevator controls as they rode upwards. Knives' body twisted 

slightly as they passed the floor with the four plants. Vash set his hand on his 

brother's forehead. "He'll be waking up soon," he said solemnly. 

  


"Can you really keep him from killing anyone?" asked Meryl. 

  


"Yes," said Vash. It was more of a promise than a simple statement. 

  


"How can we help here?" asked Meryl. "Everything is all so new for us." 

  


"You can help me guard Knives. There are a lot of people here who want to kill 

him." 

  


Meryl could tell that Vash was hiding something again. Something very important. 

The elevator doors opened and they walked out onto the fifty-seventh floor. 

There were large windows on both sides of the hallway. Meryl looked out and saw 

the huge array of stars behind the five moons. The desert was more than an ile 

below them, just a thin strip of somber land compared to the brilliance of the 

stars. Meryl suddenly didn't care if she ever went back to the outside. Vash 

walked past the windows not noticing the stars. 

  


"Aren't the stars beautiful, Meryl?" said Milly. 

  


"They definitely are, Milly." 

Meryl knew that she would've gotten very lonely very quickly here without Milly. 

  


Vash stopped outside of a set of doors near the end of the hallway. He put his 

hand on a console and the door slid open. Vash flicked a switch and the lights 

turned on. The room was almost completely empty except for a large concrete 

block on the far side of the room. 

  


"Are you sure this is the room?" asked Meryl. 

  


"Yes. This is where Knives and I are going to stay."

  


"It's so bare." The agent added. 

  


"There's a lot I need to do in here before tomorrow." 

  


Vash left Knives on the cart and walked the girls back toward the elevator to 

their room. They stopped at the room nearest to the windows. Vash pushed a few 

buttons on the console. 

  


"Meryl, put your hand here." 

  


Vash took Meryl's hand and placed it on a black space on the console. The area 

underneath her hand flashed green. Meryl yelped and quickly drew her hand away. 

  


"Is it okay? Am I going to be all right?" 

  


Vash laughed at the panicking little agent. Meryl held her hand up to her face 

and stared at it intently. 

  


"You're going to be fine. You'll get used to it," Vash assured her. 

  


He pressed a few more buttons on the panel. 

  


"Now it's your turn, Milly." 

  


Milly placed her hand on the panel. After a few seconds the console flashed 

green. Milly took her hand off and looked at it. 

  


"That didn't hurt at all Mr. Vash!" Vash smiled and pressed a few more buttons. 

  


"Now put your hand back on the console, Meryl." 

  


Meryl reluctantly placed her hand down. The console flashed green again 

  


"Argh!" 

  


This time the door opened. The ladies room was much nicer. It was a larger room 

with two beds. The beds had fresh blankets and sheets, and the ladies had their 

own bathroom. There was even a little lounge area with a couch and a table. Vash 

showed them where they could adjust the temperature of the room. The insurance 

agents looked at each other and realized that they were now getting paid to stay 

in some of the most elite living quarters on the whole planet. 

  


"Meryl?" 

  


"Yes, Milly?" 

  


"I don't really care if we get a raise any more." 

  


"Neither do I, Milly." 

  


Vash excused himself and said he would meet the agents here for breakfast around 

eight o'clock the next morning. Meryl poked her head out the door and saw Vash 

leave down the elevator to parts unknown. The women chose their beds, unpacked 

their bags, washed up, and went to sleep. 

  


Vash took the elevator down to a storage level. He brought up a few armloads of 

metal bars, strange pointed tools and a cabinet. Vash closed the door behind him 

and commenced building his temporary holding chamber for Knives. It was early 

the next morning when he finished. Vash placed Knives on his new bed, locking 

him into position. Exhausted, Vash lay on the floor next to a heap of twisted 

metal and fell asleep. After a few hours he woke up and went down to Doc's room. 

He knew that Doc was a very early riser; Vash had often visited him during this 

time. Vash put his hand on the console outside Doc's room. The door opened. Doc 

was seated at a desk. 

  


"It's good to see you at the regular time, Vash. How is Knives coming along?" 

said the doctor as he sipped a freshly brewed cup of hot tea. 

  


"I've done what I can. The ship is safe. He's his own worst enemy now." 

  


Vash described to the doctor how he designed the dampeners. 

  


"That's wonderful, Vash. How long do you think it will last though? Those 

dampeners have already been in use for 100 years." 

  


"It looked almost new when I took it out, at least another 100 years. By then 

I'll have figured something else out."

Doc marveled at the fact that Vash could take such long periods of time so 

lightly. He was a different being entirely. It still amazed him that to Vash 

every life on board this ship was extremely precious. It was 50 years before 

Vash had told him what really happened on the seeds flag ship. Someone on board, 

Sherin, had gotten her own hydroponics garden going and she gave Vash a little 

geranium. Doc never new someone could cry so much. Doc knew there were other 

secrets this man held but perhaps it was best he didn't know. Some things are 

better left buried forever. The two commenced talking about the rejuvenation of 

the ship after it crashed. The ship residents were still in the process of 

rebuilding the two plants that the Gung-Ho Guns destroyed. Doc assured Vash that 

the plant beings hadn't died. 

  


"They're extremely tough like you and your brother," Doc said. 

  


"The two beings were placed in the bulb with plant number three. We had no options left. We couldn't just leave them in a sleep chamber and let them die. We decided to put them in a bulb with another plant being. We couldn't tell what was happening at first but after a few minutes the power output increased as indicated by the presence of the two 

combined plant signals. An engineer checked on them three days ago and they're 

almost healed. I don't know what allowed them to survive but maybe now that 

you're back you can help us figure it out. We'd like you to help us with the 

reconstruction of the bulbs when you can spare the time. I know you have a lot 

to do with Knives."

"Knives ..." Vash murmured. "I need to check in on him. He's going to be waking 

up soon. I'll go down to the engineering level tomorrow."

  


Vash got up. 

  


"Thank you for letting me back in the ship with him. A lot of people on board 

wouldn't have let me come back." 

  


"It's no problem, Vash. The plants have never functioned better than when you're 

here." 

  


Vash exited the room and hurried back up to floor fifty-seven. Doc's last 

comment had hurt more than helped. There were many many things Vash wished he 

could forget. Another event he would never want to remember was about to happen. 


	5. 5

Vash opened the door to his brother's holding room. Knives lay on the large slab 

concrete. Large metal cuffs were bolted into the concrete and circled the man's 

ankles. His wrists were held by similar looking cuffs but these had a thin layer 

of copper on the inside right next to the unconscious man's skin. Knives lay on 

a blanket that Vash had dug up from somewhere but Vash doubted his brother would 

appreciate it. Twisted pieces of metal lay around the concrete slab in shiny 

multicolored heaps. Vash had been able to bend these kinds of metal too easily. 

They never would've been able to hold his brother down, even without his power. 

Vash put his hand on his brother's forehead. He needed to do this now. It would 

be too cruel if it happened while his brother was alone. Vash tapped his 

brother's cheek with the back of one finger. 

  


"Knives, wake up," he whispered. 

  


Knives stirred. Vash tapped him again. Knives opened his eyes and looked up at 

his brother. Vash took a step back as his brother sat up. Knives looked at his 

ankles, wrists, arms, Vash, and the room with its collection of mangled metal 

and the small cabinet on the far side of the room. He turned back to his 

brother. 

  


"What the hell did you do to my arms, Vash. I don't enjoy stabbing pain in my 

appendages. You should know that."

  


Vash didn't reply.

  


"What did you do, Vash? Do you think you've caught me, Vash?" 

  


Vash didn't respond. 

  


"Are you mute, you idiot? Does this help?" Knives telepathically talked to his 

brother. 

  


"I'd thought you'd prefer talking with grunts like the humans do." 

  


Knives tugged against one of his wrist cuffs. 

  


"You've actually spent some time on this haven't you? Still trying to protect 

your gut flora from the fact that their entire existence is based on the slow 

murder of our kind? You're even wearing their clothes now ... Vash you really 

disappoint me. I think that's a woman's shirt. " 

  


Knives tugged harder on his wrist cuffs. Vash took another step back. 

  


"I hope I didn't make you're scars much worse when I shot you. I couldn't do 

much more damage than what the humans had already done." 

  


Vash didn't reply. 

"Do you have a tongue any more or did they shoot that off as well? Are any cells 

working in that derelict head of yours?" 

  


Knives was getting angry.

  


"Vash, talk to me. " 

  


No response. 

  


"TALK TO ME NOW!" he screamed out loud. 

  


The angel arm effect appeared only for a fraction of a second before purple and 

black rays of energy erupted outwards from Knives' arms. Yellow sparks spewed 

out from the copper bands as the rays looped back on themselves and were sucked 

back into the bands. The air crackled and hissed as the raw energy rays were reabsorbed. 

The seething rays heated the copper and fused the ends of the bands together 

sealing them in perfect circles around Knives' arms. Knives cried out with 

screams of hot white rage and agony as his angel arm energy traveled through the 

silvery metal coils, down the spike and into his bone. The metal fused with the 

bone as the energy spread out through his entire body. Knives face contorted in 

tortured arrays as every neuron in his body was lacerated from the concentrated 

blast of his own energy. He fainted. The sparking fizzled out as the 

energy was slowly reabsorbed. Vash watched the entire 

sequence with hardened sad eyes. He walked up to his brother and put his hand on 

his brother's forehead. 

  


"You'll live, Knives, but you won't be killing anyone any more," he said sadly. 

"There isn't any other way." 

  


Vash leaned down, kissed his brother's forehead, and started to cry. Someone 

started banging loudly on the door. More banging was added as Vash dropped to 

the floor sobbing. He heard Milly's voice.

  


"Vash, it's us. What's going on? Are you okay? We heard screaming." 

  


"Get away from here," he yelled with tears falling from his eyes to the floor. 

"I don't need you now. Go away. Go back to your room." 

  


His voice trailed off to a soft sad whisper. 

  


"Damn these doors," Meryl muttered. "Milly, get your stun gun." 

The banging stopped as the big agent walked back to her room. 

  


"Vash, please tell us if you're okay? Are you hurt? Is Knives okay? You told us 

to protect Knives." 

  


Meryl waited for a response and then ran away down the corridor. Vash didn't 

know what to say. 

  


"Of course he was hurt. Yes, his brother was hurt and no, he definitely was not 

okay and it was his fault. All of it. Damn it. 

  


"Why did I bring these two here?" he thought.

  


There was silence for a few moments. 

  


"Vash, we just want to know if you're hurt," said Meryl as she returned outside 

the door. "We want to help you." 

  


No response. 

  


"All right. Milly. Fire at the door."

  


"Right on!" 

  


"Stop it!" Vash yelled. "Don't fire. I'll open the door." 

  


He crawled to the console by the side of the door and pressed a few buttons. The 

door opened. The first thing the agents saw were the piles of twisted metal. 

Milly, dressed in pajamas, carrying her stun gun, entered the room, but didn't see Vash sitting off to the side on the floor of the room. She ran forward to Knives. Despite 

the agony he had been through, Knives' hospital gown had only been singed in a 

few places, but other than that there was no sign of any injury. 

  


"Mr. Knives, are you okay?" 

  


No response. Meryl had her cape on over her pajamas. She looked around the room 

and spotted Vash lying beside a hunk of metal. 

  


"Vash!" she cried out as she saw him on the floor, wiping tears from his eyes. 

She rushed over to him and sat down beside him. Vash turned his face away from 

her. 

  


"Vash, what's wrong?" she asked as she put her hand on his arm and tried to turn 

him towards her. 

  


Vash flicked her hand away.

  


"I'm fine. I'll be okay," he said, trying to stop his tears. 

  


"What happened? Something happened in here." 

  


"Mr. Knives looks a little singed, but he seems alive," said Milly as she walked 

over to Vash, her stun gun in hand. 

  


"He tried to use his angel arms," said Vash, unsuccessfully blocking the sound 

of tears from his voice. "The dampeners took the energy and forced it back through his body. It hurts him when that happens." 

  


The girls presence did calm him down. He turned around to face them. They 

immediately scrutinized him for any signs of injury. 

  


"You weren't hurt then?" asked Meryl in disbelief. 

She kicked at a piece of twisted metal for emphasis. 

  


"No. I wasn't hurt. I ... didn't like seeing that happen to him." 

Milly gave him a gentle pat on the back. 

  


"We want you to be okay too, Mr. Vash," she said cheerfully. 

Vash smiled. 

  


"What happened to all this metal?" asked Meryl, still doubtful if Vash was 

uninjured. 

  


"You don't need to worry. That was just me," Vash said lightly as he got up off 

the floor. 

  


He looked back at his comatose brother. 

  


"I really wish I didn't have to make anybody suffer," he thought. He walked out 

of the room,his two chaperones trailing after him. 

  


"You look like you haven't slept at all, Vash. Did you get any rest last night?" 

Meryl gently asked. 

  


"No. I'll be staying with Knives now. I think it'll be better that way. He needs 

me right now, and he needs to know what happened." 

  


Vash stopped outside the agent's room. 

  


"No guns allowed at breakfast, ladies," he said poking at Meryl's cape. "You'll 

have to put them away." 

  


Meryl harumphed at him as she and Milly went into their room and started to 

detach their weaponry. Vash spied Meryl's suitcase lying open on the table. He 

took out the spare dampener, the last remaining item in the suitcase. 

  


"What are you going to do with that?" asked Meryl quickly. 

  


"You don't need to be so critical, " said Vash putting on his biggest fake grin. 

  


"I'm just going to lock it away in Knive's room." 

  


"No you're not," said Meryl as she chucked her cloak on her bed and tried to 

grab the dampener away from Vash. 

  


The tall man held the dampener above his head as Meryl pathetically grabbed at 

it. She realized her flailing was getting her no where. She stopped and sat down 

on one of chairs positioned around the table. 

  


"Can I go back to the room with you at least?" 

  


"Not if you're still wearing your pajamas." Vash said slyly. 

  


Meryl glared at him, grabbed her day cloths, and went in the bathroom to change. 

Vash shouted loudly in the direction of the bathroom, "Even though your pajamas 

are much nicer than Meryl's, you'll have to change too, Milly." 

  


"Okay, Mr. Vash" said Milly just as loudly. 

  


"Shut up, you two," barked Meryl. "You're still in Milly's clothing, Vash. I 

wouldn't complain." 

  


"Okay, okay, I'll change before we go to breakfast." 

Vash's shirt a was grubby, sweat stained, tear stained mess. He had a 

spare outfit here on the ship. He'd have to go back to his room and get it now. 

  


"Sorry about this, Milly," said Vash, apologetically. "I can make up for it 

though. Would you like some ship clothing to wear?" 

  


"Oh, wow! Can I get a pretty dress?" squealed Milly. 

  


"Maybe."

  


Meryl, dressed in her day cloths, stepped out of the bathroom and hauled Vash 

out of the room. They walked down to Knives' room. 

  


"Vash, can you fix the door so Milly and I can get in?" 

  


"Not yet," he said firmly. "It's too dangerous for you to be alone with him." 

  


Vash's hand print opened the door and he and Meryl walked inside. Vash went over 

to the cabinet, opened a drawer, placed the dampener inside, and locked the 

drawer. Taking a key out of his pocket Vash said, "When he stops shocking himself, I'll 

let you both come in here and I'll give you this, then." 

  


Vash didn't say that he'd most likely be dead if she ever needed to use it. They 

exited and met a freshly dressed Milly back at the girls' room. They walked to 

the elevators. Vash stopped before one of the huge windows. 

  


"We'll have to watch the suns rise tomorrow. It's beautiful to see from 

the sky." 

  


"I'd like that a lot," said Meryl starring out the window. 

Milly smiled at her little partner and promised herself that she'd sleep in 

extra late tomorrow morning. They took the elevator down to the twenty-first 

floor, the level right above where that plants were kept. 

  


"Wait here," Vash said as they got off the elevator. "My room hasn't been used 

for a long time. I don't want you two to see what 20 years of dust looks like." 

  


Vash took off down the corridor while Milly held Meryl in place. 

  


"Now Meryl, he's just going to his room. Let's let him keep his dignity. He 

might have left out a few underwear. My brothers were always doing that ..." 

  


Vash reminded himself to get Milly whatever dress she wanted from the ship's 

tailors. He rounded a corner and stopped at the entrance to his room. The 

control panel outside the room had gathered dust. Vash wiped it off with the 

corner of his decrepit shirt. He set his hand down on the panel and the door 

opened. 


	6. 6

Vash stepped into his room and turned on the light. A dust layer two centimeters 

thick covered every surface in the room. His feet kicked up swirls of the 

intruding substance as he walked towards his desk. He brushed the dust off an old drawing he did of Rem ages ago. He'd always regretted he'd never had anything of hers, 

not a gift, letter, or photograph. So much of that damn Seeds ship had blown up 

but Knives had found where he hid designs of those guns. 

  


"Can't keep the girls waiting," he said as he set down the photo and opened the 

closet. 

  


Inside was the space uniform he had worn when he first came on board. Fortunately, he'd covered it with that old tattered brown poncho. He dug out the 

light blue and white suit and carefully changed, kicking up as little dust as 

possible. Vash had never sneezed in his entire life and he didn't want to start 

now. Looking at all the dust covering his old bed, table, and dozen smaller things, he realized he didn't want any of it. Not one thing. Except for the 

boots. He needed his boots. He had gone barefoot all this time. He dusted the 

black boots as much as he could and put them on. Later he'd come back and throw 

everything else away. He left the room quickly before any other memories 

unburied themselves from the dust. 

  


"You can tell him tomorrow morning when you see the sunrise," Vash heard Milly 

say as he walked toward the elevator. "But, I think he knows already."

Meryl was about to say something when Milly spied Vash walking down the 

corridor. 

  


"Mr. Vash, you look pretty!" she said as Vash walked towards the two women. 

  


"Could I have one like that?" Milly asked with that 'you'll buy me dinner, won't 

you?' puppy dog look in her eyes. 

  


"It's really old actually. They don't make these any more. I'll be needing some 

different clothes, it's kind of clunky actually." 

  


"I can make you some," said Meryl. "Milly and I need something to do while we're 

here watching Knives." 

  


"It'll be fun!" Milly added. 

  


The ladies discussed various patterns and colors as they rode down the elevator 

to the third floor. Vash led them down the hall into the huge cafeteria. There 

were dozens of tables with about 200 ship dwellers spread around the room 

leisurely talking about the previous night's activities. The cafeteria was open 

at all hours and people could come in at any time to have a meal. Vash and the 

agents each picked up a tray and got into the short line. Two elderly ladies 

were dolling out several strange foods the agents had never seen before. 

  


"Vash! You're back again!" said the old ladies as Vash neared them in line. 

  


Vash explained to many people that morning that he and Knives were back to stay. 

He introduced Milly and Meryl to all of them as outsiders who were very dear to 

him and were here to keep Knives safe. The natives eyed Meryl and Milly but the 

agents weren't half as visually intimidating as Wolfwood had been. Generally the 

ship dwellers' reaction was at least polite. Their table quickly filled with 

people as Milly and Meryl ate exotic foods called "peaches" and "kiwi." Vash 

knew all the names of the older people and he was introduced to many children. 

Meryl noticed that the older the ship dweller, the more comfortable and younger 

they seemed to act around him. Vash's spirits rose as more and more of his old 

friends came by to talk. Surprisingly no one mentioned the deaths that had 

recently occurred. There was a certain isolated table on the far side of the 

room where a few young men and women perhaps in their 20's sat. They whispered 

to each other and none of them came over to visit. Just as Vash was getting up 

to get a bit of food for Knives when a small girl with light brown hair wearing 

a light blue and yellow dress entered the cafeteria. Meryl saw the girl's green 

eyes quadruple in size. 

  


"Vash! Vash! VASH!" she warbled as she ran at Vash full speed with her arms wide 

open. She plowed into his chest, knocking him to the ground. She rubbed her head 

on his shoulder right where Knives had given him an especially nasty wound. Vash 

winced and gritted his teeth. 

  


"Hi, Jessica, its great to see you again."

  


He looked up at Milly and Meryl his eyes full of consternation. 

  


"Jessica?" Meryl said tentatively. The agent doubted that this girl was Vash's 

daughter. 

  


"Vash has been wounded recently so you should hold off on slamming him to the 

ground," said Milly. "That probably hurts him a lot," she added. 

  


Jessica looked up at the pained smile on Vash's face. 

  


"No one could ever hurt my Vash!" she exclaimed. 

  


Meryl breathed a sigh of relief. There were some parts of Vash that this pert 

girl hadn't seen yet. The other residents snickered as Vash tried unsuccessfully 

to peel the girl off of him. 

  


"Let's get married, Vash!" she declared. 

  


Meryl wasn't happy about that and neither was Vash. He looked at the utter 

contentment on Jessica's face as she polished some of the healed skin off his 

wounds with her head. 

"I can't do that, now. I'll be taking care of my brother for a long time. I've 

brought a couple of people to help me actually."

  


Jessica stopped her excoriating, looked up at Vash and then at the two new 

people who were standing over her. 

  


"Wow, you're short!" she said as she got up off of her landing pad and stood in 

front of Meryl. 

  


Jessica was a little bit taller than Meryl but Jessica's comment seemed to give 

her a few extra centimeters over the agent. 

  


"Yes, that's me," said Meryl sheepishly as she felt the entire cafeteria look at 

her diminutive height and slight build. 

  


Milly quietly helped Vash up off the floor before Jessica could jar any more 

wounds open. Vash introduced the agents to Jessica and explained their purpose 

on board the ship. 

  


"I don't believe you," said Jessica defensively. "How could anyone ever want to 

hurt your brother? He's your twin. He must be just like you. I've never believed 

any of the nasty things people have said about him or you," she said loudly. 

  


The crowd that had built around them started to disperse quickly. Vash hugged 

the girl to himself, making sure her mouth was completely immobilized. 

  


"Let's talk about this later," he said as the crowed dispersed further. 

  


He let Jessica come up for a breath of air. 

  


"Okay, Vash, then we'll get married. I can make you another red cloak, right?" 

she said as she pulled at the light blue fabric of his suit. 

  


"I'd like to get away from red actually. I've worn that color for a long time." 

  


"Something yellow, then!" she squealed. "Bright yellow with black polka dots. I 

have a dress just like that, then we'll match!" 

  


Milly giggled. Even she had more fashion sense then that. Vash thought quickly; 

he had no intention of walking around like a large bruised banana, but he 

couldn't really say no. 

  


"Would you like to make me some pajamas?" 

  


"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yellow with black polka dots! I'll start today!" 

  


The girl released Vash and traipsed off to the food line. 

  


"We didn't know you had a girlfriend, Vash," said Meryl dryly. 

  


"Neither did I," he said as the three left the cafeteria. "I hadn't seen her for 

20 years until the last time I was here. It's really strange when someone asks 

to marry you and the last time you really saw them they were four years old." 

Milly asked, "Do you plan to marry her, Mr. Vash, eventually?" 

  


Meryl winced on the inside. 

  


"I really don't think about her that way, and she'd never be able to understand 

who Knives and I really are, what we've done to this planet. Someone like that 

would get very frustrated with me after a short time." 

  


"We understand completely," said Meryl. 

  


Vash thought about tripping the small agent but decided against it. "I need to 

check on Knives. Let's go." Vash and the agents left the cafeteria. Suddenly, 

  


Vash stopped right before they got to the elevator. 

  


"I forgot the food for Knives," he said as he turned to go back to the 

cafeteria. "I'll go. You two just wait here," said Milly. 

  


She pushed Meryl slightly toward Vash as she turned around. Vash caught the 

little agent by the shoulders. 

  


"Milly!" Meryl said angrily as the big girl headed off down the hall. 

  


"I don't know what that was about," said Meryl as she brushed Vash's hands off 

her shoulders. 

  


Vash looked down at her with a peculiar look in his eye. 

  


"So, Meryl, how long have you been short?" 

  


He grinned as she balled up her hands into tight fists. He was prepared for her 

and easily dogged her punches. Meryl 's heart really wasn't into it. She 

preferred hitting him on the head if anywhere. It was the one place where she 

couldn't possibly do any more damage. 

  


Vash was showing Meryl how to punch and dodge more effectively when Milly came 

back with a large plate of food. They rode the elevator up to their floor. 

  


"So, Vash, would you like all of your shirts to be yellow with black polka 

dots?" giggled Milly. 

  


"No! Something blue or green would be nice. No yellow, please!" he whimpered as 

he walked with the girls back to their room. 

  


There was a more complicated computer console inside the ladies' room. Vash 

showed the women how to look up a map of the ship and identify the ship's 

different levels. One of the ship residents this morning had told them how they 

were starting to trade their knowledge of the lost technology for bolts of 

cloth, food and other supplies they had always been short on. Some were starting 

to think that maybe coming down to surface had been a blessing even if it was in 

very dark disguise. The women took a few measurements from Vash and then 

scurried off to get the cloth. Meryl called back to him from the elevator. 

  


"Are you sure you'll be okay with Knives?" 

  


"I'll be fine now. The worst part is over for him." 

  


The elevator door closed and Vash walked back to his brother's room with the 

plate of food in hand. He opened the door. Knives was sitting up examining the 

copper bands and attachments. Vash set the food down on the top of the cabinet. 

  


"Are you hungry?" asked Vash. 

  


"Of course I'm hungry, you pathetic idiot." 

  


Vash took the food over to his brother and started to feed him little bits of 

fruit and pancakes. 

  


"I would feel less like a baby if I could feed myself," said Knives after he had 

swallowed a bit of kiwi. 

  


"That could be arranged if you're good." 

  


"I don't do your kind of good. I thought you understood that." 

  


Vash picked up a slice of orange off the plate and ate it. 

  


"Fine. What's good?" 

  


Vash fed another slice of kiwi to his brother. 

  


"I want to introduce you to two people tomorrow. Two humans. They're going to 

help me take care of you." 

  


Knives swallowed the kiwi. 

  


"I really hoped you wouldn't allow maggots in my room." 

  


Vash ate another slice of orange. Knives would've punched that smug expression 

off his brother's face if he had the chance. 

  


"Are they pleasant maggots, like Rem, or the putrid type like Steve?" 

  


"They're not maggots. They've saved my life many times. They're good people and 

they want to help you."

"Did you know that humans used leeches to restore circulation to reattached 

limbs? It may have helped save a higher being's life but a leech is still a 

leech whether its in a stream or on your arm." 

  


Knives stared at the plate of food in Vash's hand. Vash ate a small piece on 

pancake. He avoided giving Knives the two plump strawberries in the center of 

the plate; he knew they were Knives' favorite. 

  


"If you let them in, they can just leave your food on your bed and leave. You 

wouldn't have to talk to them. I'd prefer if you didn't," said Vash. 

  


"And what are you going to do in the meantime? Dance with the maggots while they 

eat your siblings' flesh?" 

  


"There are two plants that we're almost destroyed when you sent the Gung-Ho Guns 

here. They're still alive and I'm going to help rebuild their bulbs." 

  


"You're going to rebuild the torture chambers when I would have free them? You 

really are disappointing, Vash."

  


Vash ate a strawberry. Knives remembered how easily Legato become his slave 

after he showed the hopeless human a little bit of kindness and gave him a 

little bit of power. He only consented to the maggot's presence because he was a 

helpful go-between and slightly useful in his own way. Maybe one of these humans 

just needed a little bit of kindness, a little bit of power and then ...

  


"Bring in your humans," Knives said, "if you promise they won't call me a 

monster and beat me." 

  


Vash didn't know if Milly was even capable of calling someone a monster. Meryl 

on the other hand ... 

  


"If you piss off the little one she'll give you a good bruise, but you'll 

deserve it if she does." 

  


"She?" Knives eyed Vash looking at his brother with a cruel gleam in his eyes. 

  


"Vash, are you still just a momma's boy, trailing after the weaker sex? You are 

trailing after them aren't you. You haven't ... Vash, tell me you haven't ..." 

Vash hit Knives with a solid blow on the mouth. Knives fell back against the 

concrete.

  


"Shut up, Knives." Vash said quietly holding back the desire to break his 

brother's jaw. He hissed "I would never risk having a kid that might turn out 

like you." 

  


Knives turned back to his brother. A small stream of blood trickled from Knives' 

lip. 

  


"Vash. You're not a complete loss." 

  


Vash wiped the blood off of his brother's chin and continued to feed him in 

silence. When the food was gone Vash picked up several pieces of metal and tools 

and walked towards the door. 

  


"Make sure to bring your humans tomorrow, Vash," Knives said as Vash left the 

room.

  


Vash dumped the metal and tools in the hallway outside his old room. He went 

inside his room and threw away everything. He washed the floors and shelves 

until the room shined. Then he brought in the items from the hallway and tore 

out the computer panel on the wall. He worked for a while testing different 

parts, rearranging various circuits, snipping off various pieces of metal, and 

shocking himself several times. Working for most of the day he assembled two 

mechanical devices. He was running the last tests when there was a light tapping 

on the door. 

  


"Vash? Vash? I'm done with your pajamas! The computer outside your door isn't 

working." Jessica kept knocking on the door. Vash sighed. The last thing he 

needed was another female trailing after him. 

  


"One second, Jessica."

  


Vash pried the doors open with his fingers. 

  


"Um .. Vash? I have your pajamas!" 

  


She wrapped herself around his waist holding the pajamas in one hand. 

  


"Vash! I want to marry you, Vash! Everyone says you're back for good, Vash!. You 

want to marry me don't you Vash?" 

  


She looked up at him oblivious to everything else, even oblivious to the grease 

stains that were now smeared on her dress. Vash had never kicked a puppy dog 

before, but he definitely wasn't going to marry one. He looked back down at her. 

  


"Jessica, I can't marry you. Ever." 

  


"Yes, you can Vash! Doc marries couples all the time, Vash!" 

  


"No, I really can't marry anybody. Did you ever hear that I have a $$60billion 

bounty? Legally I can't marry anybody. I have no rights as a human being. I know 

you love me a lot but there are a lot of other good guys on this ship. Jessica 

you could be killed by the government if they knew you were involved with me. 

It's a big risk to this ship that Doc let me back on board. No matter how much 

you love me, I can't marry you. I don't want it to end up killing you." 

  


He waited for it to sink in. Jessica took her arms off him. She sat down on the 

floor.

"But, I love you Vash!" 

  


"The government doesn't care if you love me. Either they'll kill you or bounty 

hunters will. I don't want anyone ever again to die because of me, Jessica. I 

just can't marry you." 

  


He spoke the last sentence slowly hoping it would sink in. 

  


Jessica started to cry.

  


"That's very sad, Vash. I never thought of it that way." 

  


Vash and Jessica looked up at Meryl who was standing in the doorway. She had a 

few tears in her eyes. Jessica got up off the floor and hugged Meryl, bawling 

her eyes out. Vash looked back at the ground. He didn't want anybody to get hurt 

but it kept happening over and over. He hit his brother already today and now 

two of his friends were crying because of him. Vash just wanted to dry up, blow 

away, and have everyone forget he existed. He knew why Meryl was crying. He 

couldn't look at either of them right now. He looked at the floor. 

  


"Vash, Milly and I wanted to invite you to come with us to diner. Jessica, you 

can come too." 

  


"Really?" the girl said, drying her tears. 

  


"Sure, you can have dinner with us anytime," said Meryl. 

  


The two ladies turned toward Vash. 

  


"Are you coming?" asked Meryl. He looked down at his latest electronic creation. 

  


"Yes, and thank you for the pajamas, Jessica." 

  


He took them from her and set them on his empty bed. They met Milly at the 

elevator and went down to dinner.


	7. 7

Knives woke up the next morning with another device on his arms. His elbows were 

covered with a tight metal sheath. The sheath was jointed so he could move the 

lower half of his arm inward and upward but not outwards. The bottom of the 

joint was attached very securely to the concrete block underneath him. 

"Vash, you really are very thorough," Knives said to himself as he tried every 

possible means of freeing his arms. 

  


His wrists still had the large cuffs but they were no longer attached to the 

concrete and there was a new kind of green metal just under where the cuffs 

contacted the concrete. He folded his hands together in his lap. What was he 

going to do first with these women? He couldn't really tell without meeting 

them. How does one get a women to submit to one's will? He had no recent 

practice in this but he was going to try. Rem wouldn't listen to reason. If 

these two didn't, then he'd have to kill them too. 

  


All the scrap metal was gone from the room, there was a new control 

panel on the inside of the door and there was a hideous pair of yellow and black 

pajamas on the floor of the room next to a blanket that looked as if it had been 

slept in.

"Vash, your taste is getting worse and worse the longer you stay with these 

degenerates," he thought. 

  


Just then the door opened. Knives' hands were pulled apart as the metal cuffs 

were drawn to the strips of green metal by a large force. The cuffs slammed down 

against the metal and the hinge at his elbow was locked into place. His arms 

once again were at his sides, immobile. 

  


"Damn you, Vash." he muttered. 

  


Vash stepped into the room followed by two very different women. Knives examined 

them. The little black haired one might get blown away if you exhaled too 

strongly while the other was huge for a female, much taller than Rem but barely 

shorter than Vash. The smaller one carried a plate of pancakes. The women both 

looked at Vash. 

  


"Knives, this is Meryl Strife," Vash said gesturing at the little woman. "and 

this is Milly Thompson." He gestured at the large woman. "They're going to bring 

you breakfast and lunch." 

  


"The door locks my arms in place doesn't it?" said Knives, not acknowledging the 

presence of the leeches just yet. 

  


"Yes it does," his brother replied. "You'll be released when there's no one else 

in the room." 

  


Vash stood at the door as Milly and Meryl walked up to Knives. Meryl placed the 

plate of pancakes on Knives legs. 

  


"Hello, Mr. Knives," she said. 

  


"I'd prefer it if you'd called me master, " he growled. 

  


"Okay, Mr. Master Knives," said Milly smiling. "You're a silly one, aren't you? 

I had a school teacher and we called him School Master Johnson! He was a short 

fat man with really big glasses and we had fun hiding the erasers from him 

because he never could find them. Do you want to be called School Mr. Master 

Knives? I think that would be cute!" 

  


Milly and Meryl beamed at him. Knives glanced over at his brother. Vash's face 

was red, his hand was over his mouth trying hard not to laugh. He had a decent 

outfit on though, an aqua shirt and tan pair of pants. 

  


"In what sewer did you find these two, Vash?" 

  


"We're not from the sewer. I'm from December and Milly's from New Bolder," said 

Meryl proudly. "Would you like anything else for breakfast, School Mr. Master 

Knives?" 

  


"Just call me Knives and no I would not like anything else," he said sharply. 

  


"Alrighty! I'll be back at lunch time," said Milly. The three touched their 

hands on the new control panel and left the room.

Knive's arms were free to move again once the door closed. He picked up a 

pancake and munched on it. Which was worse, being hand-fed by his brother or 

being subjected to the presence of hopeless zoophytes twice a day? Legato was 

different. Legato had already been filled with so much hate for his own species. 

These two ... Rem would like these two. For once Vash's thoughts as he walked 

behind the ladies in the hallway echoed Knives'.

  


"That went well," said Meryl as they walked back to the elevator. 

  


"He'll be worse when you come alone", said Vash. "Just remember, he can't hurt 

you. No matter what he says, he can't hurt you." 

  


"Does he like doughnuts Mr. Vash? Doughnuts really helped break the ice with 

you," said Milly. 

  


"That wouldn't help. He likes killing humans. There isn't anything else you can 

do for him now. Just be kind to him when you see him." 

  


Vash looked at the two agents. 

  


"I know you'll be kind to him." 

  


Vash pressed his hand on the console outside the elevator. 

  


"Doc changed the main elevator code today so only we can get up to the top 

floor. Nobody else comes up here, ever."

  


They rode down the elevator and went to the tailor's room. Vash helped the 

ladies pick out new outfits. Milly chose a white dress with yellow top but 

Meryl's outfit, a light blue long-sleeved dress, needed to be altered in a few 

places. Vash excused himself from the ladies and went down to the plant 

engineering floor. 

  


The room containing plant number two was filled with activity. A new bulb was 

being built on top of the main plant platform. Large rectangular pieces of 

freshly shaped glass were being hoisted up to the platform with a large crane. 

Groups of men and women worked on sections of the walls and floors still 

repairing the damage that occurred when Vash was last here. New metal glistened 

in several places already. A new controller had been built as well as a new base 

for the plant bulb. 

  


Vash was about to introduce himself to a lady welding a section of wall when 

somebody shouted, "Get him out of here! He's the one responsible for the ship 

coming down. That's Vash, Vash the Stampede." 

  


Vash recognized the voice even though he couldn't see him. It was Michael. 

Everybody stopped and looked at him. 

  


The man continued shouting, "He's the one responsible for the deaths of one 

fifth of everybody on board this ship. We all know someone who died." 

Michael walked towards him accompanied by three men all about the size that Brad 

had been. 

  


"Get out of here Vash. We don't want anymore humans to get killed because of 

you." 

  


Vash stayed where he was. Most of the people in the room were in there 20's and 

30's and didn't remember Vash well. Others were older and Vash thought that he 

had known them well. Finally someone else from across the large room, James, 

spoke. 

  


"Leave him alone Michael. He's lived on this ship for longer than you have." 

  


Michael, his posse and other people in the room laughed. It wasn't kind 

laughter. Michael grabbed Vash's shirt and threw him to the floor. James ran up 

to Michael and tried to calm him down. 

  


"Stop it Michael. It wasn't his fault." Michael pushed the older man away. One 

of Michael's men, a brown haired man stepped closer to Vash. 

  


"Val's dead because of you, mutant. You should be dead, not Val, you should be 

dead." 

He kicked at Vash. Vash caught his foot with both hands. 

  


"Let me go you bastard!" the man shrieked. 

  


Vash released the man's foot. He responded by kicking Vash in the face hard. James 

grabbed the man and pinned his arms behind him. Several other older men blocked 

Michael from getting any closer; one of them was Kevin. Nobody of any age messed 

with Kevin.

"Stop this" James said. "Stop this now. Vash is as much a resident of this ship 

as anybody here. Nobody has any reason to fear him." 

  


A woman spoke from the crowd that had gathered around them. 

  


"They came here, the demons came here because of him and he brought back Knives 

this time. He'll kill everyone this time."

  


Kevin helped Vash get up off the floor. 

  


"Vash helped raise some of you. He helped raise me when I didn't have a father 

to begin with. This man is not a killer."

  


The same women shouted, "Then why are there 37 more orphans than before we hit 

the ground? Why did my sister die if it wasn't because of him?" 

  


The woman emerged from the crowed. Vash recognized her. It was Melissa. Vash 

remembered her as a shy blushing child. Now she had tears running from her eyes 

and hatred warped her face. This meant Alice, her younger sister had died. 

  


James spoke, "We know who caused their deaths. We scraped their bodies off the 

floor, that gauntlet man and the machine. They're responsible. Not him." 

  


"We'll talk to Doc about this," hissed Michael.

  


He pushed his way to the door and exited with his men and Melissa. 

  


"We all remember Vash," said James raising his voice to fill the whole room. 

  


"For 80 years he lived peacefully with all of us. Nobody died because of him 

then and nobody will die because of him now. He's a good man, a friend anybody 

would want to have. We all know Doc wouldn't know a man for 80 years and not 

know who he is. Doc doesn't let anybody on this ship he think will harm us. If 

you trust Doc then you have to trust Vash. We'd be idiots not to let Vash help 

us fix our plants. He's the reason they ran so well for 80 years. Now I'm going 

to show him around and if he tells you something, you do it. If you have a 

problem with that then go see Doc. You don't hit people we all know that. We're 

not like the people on the planet. We don't hurt people. Now let's get back to 

work."

Several more people left the room. The rest of the crowd broke up back into 

their work groups. The eyes of the younger ones followed Vash as James showed 

him the unfinished sections of the walls and floor. The young people were 

deciding. James took him up the stairs where the new plant bulb was being built. 

They were away from most of the people now. Vash felt a little more comfortable 

speaking here. 

  


"The base of the bulb looks right but these inner torque bolts aren't lined up 

right. I can fix them." 

  


Vash put his hands on the edge of the base of the bulb. 

  


"Sure, no one else knows better than you." 

  


James stood back from the bulb pleased to see the master at work. Vash crawled 

onto the base and turned the bolts slightly altering their orientation a tiny 

amount. A tiny misalignment like that would normally have been only able to be 

detected with lasers. Vash crawled out of the base and looked over at the large 

sections of glass bulb. He examined them carefully rubbing his fingers on the 

glass. 

  


"You've done very good work. No cracks in any of them." 

  


"We've got about 40 more to make." 

  


"Thirty-eight?" 

  


"Yes, thirty-eight. They'll be done in about a month. The polishing is the 

longest part. Our technology hasn't improved any since you were here last. Bulb 

assembly should take about a week once we have the pieces." 

  


As they talked more about specific parts James could see a large bruise forming 

along the side of Vash's jaw. 

  


"Vash, I'm sorry about Michael. I tried to talk to him after I got off my guard 

shift. It just made things worse. He doesn't understand. Both of his parents 

were killed during the attack. Doc can handle these situations better than I 

can." 

  


"It isn't easy to understand what happened. If Doc thinks I should leave, I 

will." Just then Vash heard Doc's voice coming from his earring. 

  


"Vash, I heard that you had a bit of trouble in the plant room. I'd like to talk 

to you about it. Can you come by right away?" 

  


"Sure, Doc. I'll be right there." 

  


"Something will be worked out," said James.

  


"I'll meet you back in the machine shop and I'll take a look at your polishers 

when I'm done with Doc." 

  


Vash walked down the stairs and crossed the room to the entrance. Before he 

could leave a young man Vash didn't recognize grabbed his arm. 

  


"Mr. Vash, my mother always said good things about you and that I should meet 

you if you came back. I'm Robert Dorland." 

  


"You're mother's Marie?" 

  


"Yes it was, but she died a few years ago from cancer. Doc couldn't do anything 

for her. I blamed him for her death for a long time until I realized that there 

are somethings that really are beyond your control. I'm sorry this had to happen 

to you, Vash. If my Mom liked you then you must be a good man." 

  


Vash smiled at him. 

  


"Thank you, Robert, I knew Marie would be a good mother to her little boy." Now 

that Vash looked at Robert, he could just see the features of the little toddler 

who loved to grab on to his mother's leg and follow her everywhere. Vash 

explained that he had to see Doc right now but he promised to save a space for 

him at the table for lunch. 

  


"All the young ones aren't against me. Thank you Robert," Vash said to himself 

as he walked over to Doc's room. 

  


He pressed his hand against the control panel. The door opened. Doc was seated 

behind his desk and the five people, Michael, Melissa, and three others were 

seated in front of him. Doc immediately noticed the bruise forming along Vash's 

jaw. The five turned around in their chairs and stared at him with 

expressionless faces. There was a spare chair next to Michael but he kicked it 

away just as Vash was about to put his hand on it. 

  


"Get away from me, mutant," Michael said as the other four laughed. 

  


"Cut that out," Doc said clearly irritated at their behavior. 

  


"This place was peaceful until you came back. GET OUT!" shouted the large brown 

haired man who'd kicked Vash. 

  


"I'll stand," said Vash. 

  


"Hush up, Dean. All of you know that Vash does not have to leave," said Doc 

sternly from behind his desk. "This place has been his home for much longer than 

it has been for any of you and it will continue to be his home." 

  


"Why did you let Knives on then?" asked Melissa. "You know he's killed hundreds 

of humans." 

  


"We are trying to be a civilized society. We don't kill people even though 

they've been cruel. We'd be no different from the people on the outside. Vash 

has taken away Knives' power. He can't harm us anymore." 

  


"What about Vash's power? What about July and Augusta? Who's going to take away 

Vash's power?" asked a large black-haired man. Doc addressed him. 

  


"Barry, Vash hasn't had any trouble with his power inside this vessel, not for 

80 years. He needs this place as much as we do. Outside is a cruel world and we 

can't throw him out." 

  


Michael got up out of his chair and shouted at Doc. 

  


"I don't trust him. Nobody should trust him if they had their head on straight. 

He and his brother are killers and I'm not going to let them take over and kill 

anybody else. Maybe the city Seeds needs a new mayor?"

  


Michael left the room abruptly. He was quickly followed by his four companions. 

Doc sighed. 

  


"You've always been a good friend and an asset to everybody on this ship, Vash. 

They'll realize this once you've been here for a while." 

  


Vash heard Doc's words but he didn't believe it. 

  


"It's very hard to forgive someone for the death of someone you love. They may 

never forgive me." 

  


The two talked more about what Vash could do to have him seen in a better light 

but every suggestion was too naïve to try. Vash decided that he'd keep to 

helping out with the plants. That was where he was most useful. Vash left Doc's 

room and went to find Meryl and Milly. He found them back at their room sewing a 

black pair of pants. 

  


"Meryl, Milly I need you to help me with the people on this ship." 

  


"What happened to you Vash?" asked Meryl as she looked at his bruise. Vash told 

them about the events in the plant room and the meeting he had with Doc and his 

detractors. 

  


"What I need you two to do is to find out from as many people as possible if 

they want me back on the ship. These people are very angry and I don't want them 

to hurt Doc or anyone else." 

  


"We're on it, captain!" said Milly. 

  


"I'll find out everything I can!" said Meryl. "They're not going to hurt you 

again Vash, not if I can help it." 

  


"If any of them say anything rude to you, you can tell Doc and he'll talk to 

them about it." 

  


Vash thanked them for their help, left the room and headed back down to the 

plant room. Meryl was angry. 

  


"Milly, we've got to find where the gossip is."

  


Milly and Meryl made a plan and went back down to the tailors. After few well 

placed questions Milly and Meryl found the hot spots. The cafeteria women and 

the ladies who worked up in the nursery came into contact with most everybody. 

Milly headed to the nursery and Meryl went down to the cafeteria. Even though 

Milly was a youngest child she had helped her neighbors and her neighbors' 

neighbors raise their children so she was an expert diaper changer and baby 

burper. The nursery did need more help especially with the orphans; some of the 

young ones hadn't spoken since the fall. 

  


Meryl had a tougher time finding a job. They didn't need any more help in the 

kitchen and they had enough servers except for dinner so Meryl created her own 

position for breakfast and lunch, coffee delivery lady. Meryl knew enough about 

waitressing to know the importance getting that initial infusion of caffeine 

into the blood stream. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner her job was set. In the 

morning she'd have to get down to the kitchen early, grab the food for Knives, 

and then return and deliver liters and liters of caffeine to the masses. 

  


Three weeks passed. Vash helped the plant engineers fix the plant rooms in half 

the time they thought they would need and he'd sped up the polishing and 

assembly of the plant two bulb so that by the end of the third week the bulb was 

completed. The plant being just needed to be placed into the bulb.

  


Milly and Meryl went over well with the ship's inhabitants. Meryl made herself a 

special apron with a smiling cup of steaming coffee on the front and she 

snatched up rumors right and left as she ferried coffee between tables. She 

heard plenty of dirt behind the food line. The news about Vash was good. Vash 

was firmly reestablished back with his old friends and most of the younger ones 

were trusting him more every day. Milly got to help deliver the first Seeds city 

child born since the fall and she got the same good impression of Vash's reputation 

from the news she heard as the women and men dropped off and picked up their 

children at the nursery. It was only the small group of five people who held out 

against Vash. They had made it clear to Meryl on her first day of work that they 

didn't want any of her coffee. 

  


Meryl and Milly did more to help Vash then they realized. Everybody on board the 

ship knew that they saw Knives every day. They were proof that Knives' power was 

really gone and that maybe he could eventually live peacefully with humans 

again.

Vash was hardly in the cafeteria at the busy times. He like to work when the 

plant rooms weren't so crowded with people. It was easier to check the 

technicians' work when they were gone and it was easier to give them a little 

bit of criticism when they had a full stomach. Vash usually spent his evenings 

with Knives, talking about their past experiences with humans, the Gung-Ho Guns, 

plant repair, and Knives' serving girl.

One morning Meryl was late coming down to breakfast after leaving to deliver 

Knives' food. Clara and Jean, who worked with Milly, started to joke with her 

about the possible locations of the popular beverage wench. 

  


"She was so happy when Kevin complimented her style of pouring yesterday. I 

think he might be getting a little bit of a crush on her. The sunrise was very 

pretty this morning. They might still be up there," said Clara. 

  


"Oh, no!" said Milly. "Meryl would never let a little thing like a crush make 

her late for work. I know. I used to let every little thing make me late for 

work but this is very unusual for Meryl." 

  


"There's Kevin over at the middle table. John's not there maybe he's up with Ms. 

Happy Coffee this morning?" added Jean.

  


Milly was worried. She excused herself from the table and found Vash in the 

plant room rechecking the clear sealant around last section of glass on the 

bulb. 

  


"Vash! Meryl hasn't showed up for breakfast yet. Did she come over here? The 

cafeteria ladies said she showed up for her food delivery but hasn't come back." 

  


They hurried out of the plant room and up to the fifty-seventh floor. They could 

hear Meryl screaming on the other side of the door to Knives' room. 

  


"Take that back, you bristle headed dimwit!"

  


Vash opened the door. 

  


"I'm not going to take it back. What I said was perfectly true." 

  


"I can fit another one in spiky boy," she hissed. 

  


Knives was completely calm lying back in his bed while an enraged Meryl, in her 

light blue dress and happy coffee apron, was leaning over him threatening him 

with a grape. Knives' hair had begun to grow out a little bit and Meryl had a 

whole repertoire of insults just waiting to be unleashed. Vash walked over to 

Meryl. She was definitely angry but unhurt. Vash looked at Knives. Vash pressed 

his lips together trying not to smile. Grapes were protruding from the bottom of 

each of Knives' nostrils. Vash took the grape out of Meryl's hand. Meryl spun 

around startled. 

  


"Vash! What are you doing here? Milly?" 

  


"You're late for work," said Milly as she quickly moved away from the doorway. 

  


"LATE?" 

  


Meryl turned bright red, ran to the door, and slammed her hand on the console. 

The door opened and she bolted out of the room. Vash savored the placid look on 

his brother's face as Knives tried to convey that having grapes shoved up 

his nose was ordinary fair for a superior plant being. 

  


"That one is excitable, isn't she?" 

  


"Um ... I'll be going now," said Milly as she headed out the door after Meryl. 

  


"She didn't hit you, did she?" asked Vash. 

  


"No. She violated me with grapes."

  


Vash put his hand on the control panel and punched in an override code. Knives' 

arms were mobile again and he quickly squitched the grapes out of his nose. 

  


"What did you say to her?" 

  


Knives sat up and looked at his brother. 

  


"I told her that her Mr. Happy Coffee apron was the most revolting, putrid, 

repulsive garment I had ever seen and that a moldy laceration was more 

attractive." 

  


Vash thought for a moment. 

  


"You're sure she didn't hit you?" 

  


"Yes." 

  


"She's actually showing a bit of restraint," thought Vash. "Knives, that isn't a 

nice thing to say to someone." 

  


"I told the other one yesterday that she looked like the swollen carcass of a 

skin diseased thomas and she didn't even blink. She said that being big was her 

specialty and then she giggled. I'd forgotten how different humans could be."

  


Knives picked a fresh grape off his plate and ate it. 

  


"Knives," said Vash as he traced a circle on the floor with his foot, "if you 

want your nostrils to stay clear you're going to have to cut back on the 

insults." 

  


"The little snit said she wouldn't leave the room until I apologized. She said 

you liked her outfit. Do you really like that apron?" 

  


"Knives, sometimes there are things you have to say to avoid getting grapes 

shoved up your nose. Understand?"

"I'm starting to." 

  


Knives wondered how much his brother had been trained by that little one. 

  


"She really likes hair insults," said Vash as he patted his brother on the head. 

  


"She's had a lot of practice then?" 

  


"Too much practice. I told her not to hit you, but next time she may not be so 

nice. If you talk like that to her again, you'll deserve it." 

  


"Fine."

  


Knives ate a bit of pancake. 

  


"We're putting Suzume back in her bulb today," said Vash as he punched in the 

override code and opened the door. 

  


"Good luck," Knives said as he inspected another fresh grape. It was a large 

one. "I'm glad she didn't see it," he thought. 


	8. 8

Suzume was huge; eight feet tall with two huge wings that were much 

larger than her body. Vash had coaxed the healthy plant being out of plant 

number three and into the long gray coffin-like sleep chamber. Four large men 

placed the chamber on a large metal cart and pushed the plant being down the 

hallway to plant room two. Michael was one of the men pushing the plant being. 

He demanded to be present during the plant transfer process for fear that Vash 

might steal the plant being away. Michael talked to Vash as little as possible 

during the whole process. Despite his young age, Michael was one of the best 

plant engineers. Exchanging few words, they brought the being to plant room two and attached the sleep chamber to a large crane. The crane lifted the plant up to the raised level of the plant bulb and onto another cart placed at the edge of the level. The engineers walked up the stairs and unhooked the sleeping chamber from the crane. Four men put on insulated plant suits while four others activated the plant controller. Vash finished putting on his plant suit and opened the hatch on the base of the new plant bulb. He took 

hold of one corner of the sleeping chamber and James took the other corner on 

the same end. The two other suited men took the opposite corners. Vash and James 

got into the plant and steadied the descent of the being's case as it was 

lowered into the plant base. Vash motioned for James to leave and everybody else 

cleared away from the plant bulb. Vash opened the case and lifted the plant 

being out, placing her on the bottom of the bulb. He pushed the case out of the 

hatch and James steadied it as it landed back on the cart. Vash climbed out of 

the hatch just as the plant was waking up. She opened her solid bright green eyes and quickly ascended to the middle of the bulb. 

  


"Power levels rising," said James, from the controller. "Still rising ... 

They've reached normal levels. Dampeners and interface are working perfectly." 

  


"Good work, men," said James as all the plant engineers cheered. Vash looked at 

Suzume as he placed his hand on the hatch door. 

  


"Thank you, friend, for coming back," he said to her through telepathy. 

  


"You ..." was all that Vash could hear of her reply before four shots were rapidly fired into Vash's back. 

  


"We don't need you any more, Vash. You can die now," said Michael as he stood on 

the far side of the plant platform holding a laser scope gun. Vash turned around 

and Michael fired three more shots into him. James ran up the stairs 

and tackled Michael, knocking the gun out of his hand. Vash slumped against the plant and tried to keep from losing consciousness. 

  


"Doc ... Doc ... get down here" he said into his earring.

  


Just then two enormous gray hands reached out of the open plant hatch and grabbed Vash by the shoulders. He was lifted up and dragged into the plant. He screamed as he 

was hit with the full force of the plant's energy as she carried him into the 

center of the bulb. His suit incinerated. 

"Close the damn hatch, Karl," shouted James to one of the suited engineers, "before she gets anyone else." 

  


James was still holding Michael who struggled tenaciously to get free. Karl 

ran to the hatch and slammed it shut. A second later Suzume appeared 

expressionless at the edge of the glass holding Vash's naked unconscious 

bleeding body. She stared at Karl intently as he backed away from the plant. 

  


"She's going to kill him. He deserves it. She knows the bastard almost killed 

her," shouted Michael as he broke free from James throwing the older man to the 

floor. Michael picked up the gun and ran down the stairs away from the plant 

firing warning shots at the men at the controller. He left the room and headed 

out to meet his team of companions. It had gone better than he had possibly 

imagined. He could blame it all on the plant. 

"Idiots, lower the power levels, we need to get him out," James shouted from the 

top of the platform. 

  


"The plant has disengaged from all of the control mechanisms," an engineer said 

with a panicked shaking voice. 

  


That was the damn thing about plants. They usually liked giving up a little 

control so they would emit their energy in a constant serene flow but when they 

were stubborn there was nothing any normal human could do about it. James ran 

down to the controller and tried every trick he knew to lower the power levels. 

Everything failed. One minute ago it had all been perfect. 

  


"Damn it," he said in frustration as all plant engineers gathered around him. 

He repeated everything his knew in different combinations just to try, try and 

get the power levels to drop. Nothing worked. 

  


"It's been ten minutes, James. He's dead. No one can survive being in there that 

long, not when they're at full power." 

  


"He's not a damn human," said James as he tried another unsuccessful 

adjustment.

"He's alive. He has to be. Aren't they his people? She wouldn't kill him. She 

wouldn't." 

  


"Look at the signal we're getting," said Karl. 

  


"On the other two output frequencies we always saw a mixed signal from both 

plants when they were in the same bulb." The engineer pointed at the display. 

  


"We're just getting one signal. After this amount of time we saw two signals in 

both cases. There's nothing here. He's dead. If the plant didn't do it Michael 

did." 

  


James slammed his hand against the sides of the controller. 

  


"Martin, Karl, get the guards and find Michael and whoever gave him that gun." 

  


Doc came rushing in through the doors. 

  


"What happened? Vash told me to get down here," he said as he rushed over to the 

men gathered down at the controller. 

  


Martin and Karl ran past him. Nobody wanted to speak. On the thirty-fourth floor, in the nursery Milly was giving a reading lesson to several of the older orphans. This group wouldn't talk to anyone yet, but Milly had gotten them to the point where they would read out loud. 

  


"And then the black cat said 'nya' and everybody new the cat was okay. The End," 

said one little boy finishing the last page of his book. Just then a console on 

the wall beeped. 

  


"That was great Jimmy! You stay right here, I'll go see who's calling." Milly 

pushed a button and spoke into the panel. 

  


"Hello? Nursery ... Clara it's your husband." 

  


Milly went back to reading with Jimmy as Clara came in to the room from where 

she had just finished changing the diaper of the newest arrival. Clara pushed a 

button on the panel so the call would be private, her husband's words only 

appearing in writing on the screen. 

  


Clara turned back to the room after a few minutes. "Ladies, they got the plant 

working again! The whole process was a complete success." 

  


"Yay!" said Milly as she gave Jimmy a celebratory hug. 

  


Jimmy smiled at her and blushed. 

  


"Ladies, lets celebrate with some special mango juice I just squeezed this 

morning. It's right from my own garden."

Clara went to the kitchen and prepared several glasses. Milly's glass had blue 

birds painted on the side. All of the other glasses were clear. Clara never told 

Milly her husbands name. The woman put an extra white tasteless powder into the 

marked glass. She brought out the glasses making sure to give Milly her juice 

first. 

  


"Wow, mango juice. I've never had that before!" Milly took a sip of the juice. 

  


"Num!" she exclaimed. 

  


She gulped down the rest of the juice. 

  


"Oh! I forgot!" said Clara suddenly. "Milly, the tailor cut a whole bunch of new 

diapers for the new arrival. I need some help bringing them up." 

  


"No problem, mango lady," said Milly giggling. 

  


Clara did like Milly. She liked her a lot. That's why she didn't kill her like 

her husband had wanted her to do. 

  


"I'll be back in a bit, Jimmy, keep reading!" 

  


The little boy blushed again and picked up another book. Milly was so wonderful 

for the children. She couldn't traumatize them any more by taking Milly away. 

Vash was the killer. The two women walked out of the nursery and entered the 

elevator. 

  


"Clara? I'm starting to feel really dizzy," said Milly grabbing on to one of the 

side bars in the elevator. 

  


The large women swayed a bit, lost her grip and fell to floor. Several seconds 

later the elevator door opened and Michael and his three cronies were waiting on 

the other side holding large heavy tools used for fixing the plants. Dean kicked Milly out of the way as he entered the elevator. 

  


"Stop it, Dean. You can do what you want with her after she's cold," said 

Michael before he kissed his wife. 

  


"Where's Melissa?" Clara asked her husband as two of the men lifted Milly just 

high enough to press her hand to the console.

"She tried to get the little agent to have a special cup of coffee but she 

wouldn't take it. She was too sick to her stomach worrying about the plant 

transfer. She'll get her eventually." 

  


"Why can't we crush his scull?" asked Dean eager to get on with their plan. 

  


"He didn't kill any one on board this ship. Vash did," explained Michael. 

  


"They're twins. We have our fun with him and then turn him into the government 

and get the sixty-billion double dollar reward. I want Knives to be in pain till 

the moment the government shoots him in the head for being Vash." 

  


The elevator went up to the fifty-seventh floor. Two of the men carried Milly 

down the hall to Knive's room. They pressed Milly's hand against the console. 

The door opened. Knive's arms locked into place. He saw them dump Milly's body 

against the far wall of the hall and walk in with their cold metal implements.

  


"Where's, Vash?" said Knives unnerved at the new humans' presence. Several of 

the large men reminded him of Steve. Steve used a club when he beat Knives; 

these men had larger heavier weapons. Dean walked up to Knives and hit him on 

the knee breaking his knee cap. The doors to the room closed. 

  


"Vash where are you?" Knives screamed. 

  


The pain ran through his whole body. Michael stopped Dean from hitting the man 

again so soon. 

  


"Your brother's dead. I shot him ... and then the plant fried him." 

Tears started to form in Knives' eyes as he looked at the smiling humans. Steve had smiled like that. Then Michael hit him. 

  


Clara stayed out in the hall. She couldn't stand the screaming. It came though 

the door and filled the hallway with the panicked shrieks of the damned man. 

Clara dragged Milly's body away from the room, away from whatever torture they 

were planning for her. She dragged her past a bend in the hallway. The screams 

weren't as loud here. Clara couldn't drag her any more. She left Milly in the 

hallway and ran to the elevator away from the muted screaming. She couldn't 

stand it any more. 

  


  


"You have to try this new blend. The people will love it. I just added a little 

bit of vanilla and cinnamon to it," said Melissa holding out a pitcher and cup 

to Meryl.

"I don't want anything until this whole mess is fixed with the plant. Plants can 

be very dangerous," said Meryl. The transfer should've been done by now, but Melissa had been bothering her about this new beverage all morning and she hadn't had time to check with the engineers herself. She knew all about Melissa and didn't want to have a thing to do with her.

Meryl was plugging in the main coffee machine in the cafeteria when James 

ran into the cafeteria. He spotted Meryl. 

  


"Meryl, its Vash, we think he might be dead. Come to the plant room now."

  


He grabbed Meryl's arm and half-carried her off to the plant room. 

  


"What happened?" she said, her voice filled with surprise and fear. 

  


"I'll show you when we get there," he replied. 

He explained to her what he could as he dragged her off through the hallway and 

up to the plant room. Inside the plant room he took her up the steps to the base 

of the plant. There was a spattering of blood by the hatch and on the floor. James lifted her up and showed her where bits of bloody metal were dropping from the glowing mass of plant energy centered in the bulb forming a pile down on the base of the bulb. 

  


"Did anything like this happen when he was on the outside?" 

  


"Not since I knew him," said Meryl, tears gathering in her eyes. 

  


"Do you think he could survive being in there?" he asked clutching her arm 

roughly. 

  


"If he could survive July and Augusta, he has to be able to survive being in 

there. That's what he is, isn't he?" 

  


All of the other plant engineers had left either searching for Michael or they 

were reviewing their plant records for any kind of help trying to get the power 

lowered. James set Meryl back on the ground. They tried to look up through the 

light of the bulb for any sign of Vash. They couldn't see him. James left the 

room to try and find Michael. Meryl sat down next to the plant, still looking 

up at it the mass of energy for any signs of Vash.

  


James met Kevin in one of the hallways. They both were out of breath. Everybody 

on the ship was searching the levels trying to find Michael. 

  


"We searched levels one through 30. Have you found any of them?" asked James. 

  


"No, thirty-one through fifty-six are clean. You don't think they left the ship, 

do you?" 

  


"Hell, no. Didn't Doc fix it so nobody could get to level fifty-seven?" 

  


"No one but him and his girls can get up there." 

  


"Meryl's in the plant room. Have you seen Milly?" 

  


"No. She's in the nursery isn't she?" 

  


They ran to the elevator and got out on the nursery floor. They ran down to the 

nursery. Clara was sitting with Jimmy trying to get him to read. 

  


"Now Jimmy, you were reading so nicely for Milly, you can read for me too, can't 

you?" 

  


Jimmy crossed his arms and turned away. 

  


"Shit," thought James, "Michael's wife." 

  


"Clara, can we talk to you outside for a moment?" asked Kevin. 

  


"Sure." She got up and walked out with the men into the hallway closing the 

nursery door. 

  


"I'll be right back, Jean," she called behind her. 

  


"What did you do with Milly?" asked James roughly. 

  


Clara looked astonished. 

  


"Milly's missing? She said she had a few errands to run for Vash after we picked 

up some diapers. I haven't seen her for about a half hour. I don't think that's 

anything to worry about."

"Did you know what your husband did in the plant room today,?" shouted James. 

  


"He tried to kill Vash." 

  


"Well, he deserved it," she said calmly. 

  


Kevin grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her back. 

  


"James, get Meryl." 

  


"Let go of me! I have children to take care of. I'm not responsible if Milly 

took a wrong turn in the corridor. She's not exactly the brightest person." 

  


Kevin hauled Clara down the hallway to Doc's hospital area, shoved her into an 

old quarantine room, and locked the door. James went back to the plant room. 

  


He ran up the stairs yelling, "Meryl, we need you now. They got up to the 

fifty-seventh floor. Milly may be up there." 

  


James grabbed Meryl before she could say anything and carried her down the 

stairs to the elevator. They met Kevin at the door. Meryl put her hand on the 

console and the elevator went up to the fifty-seventh floor. The doors opened 

and they saw Milly lying on the floor against the wall just before the bend in 

the corridor. Meryl ran out of the elevator over to Milly. 

  


"She's breathing. She's not bleeding any where," Meryl said as the men laid 

Milly down more comfortably in the hallway. Suddenly a twisted wretched scream 

filled the hallway. Meryl jerked her head up. 

  


"That has to be Knives." 

She ran down the corridor followed closely by the two men. She put her hand on 

the console opening the door to Knives' room. The floor was speckled with 

droplets of blood. Three men stood around Knives as he lay on the floor. Dean 

was holding Knives head against the floor. Michael and his men 

ran at Kevin and James with their bloodied weapons. Meryl ran back to her room 

to get her derringers and Milly's stun gun. 

  


Kevin knocked Dean out with one punch to the side of his head. James fell back into the hallway as Michael rushed at him. Kevin took one blow to his back before knocking Barry and Jason to the ground. James got one good hit to Michael's chin sending him sprawling to the floor, but before he could get up Kevin grabbed Michael's head and rammed it against the wall knocking him out. 

  


Inside the room Knives crawled across the floor dragging his body with his 

broken arms. His entire body was covered with blood, bits of bone sticking out from 

his limbs. He left a thick trail of blood behind him as he crawled to the 

console. Bracing himself against the cabinet he raised himself just high enough 

to reach the console. He typed in a code permanently locking the door. 

  


"One hundred and thirty damn years and they don't change any of the override 

codes," he thought as he dropped back to the floor. 

  


He wanted to die now. Vash was dead. The humans had won. They'd broken the 

concrete around the fasteners holding Knives after they had broken all his 

limbs. Several large smears of blood on the walls marked where they had thrown 

him trying to get the plant being to lose consciousness and stop that damn 

screaming. That was when they'd decided to kill him. They didn't have long to 

wait. Knives lowered his head to the floor and prepared for his journey to hell.

Meryl came back with her cape and the stun gun. She put her hand on the console 

outside Knives' room. 

  


"It's not opening. I don't know what's wrong." 

  


James and Kevin tried the few codes they knew and nothing worked. Kevin left to 

get Doc and some rope for Michael and his men. Meryl braced herself against the 

wall and fired the stun gun at the door. The blow dented the door but it didn't 

open. 

  


Knives shouted his voice raw from screaming, "Leave me alone. Vash is dead. I 

want to die now." 

  


"Vash isn't dead," Meryl shouted back. 

  


"He has to be. He would never let this happen me," screamed Knives. James tried 

to explain what happened to Vash but he got no response. 

  


"Meryl, wait in the elevator when Kevin comes back with Doc. They'll need you to 

get back up here." 

Meryl showed him how to use the stun gun and ran back through the hallway. Milly was just waking up. 

  


"Ugh. Meryl, have you ever had mango juice before?" 

  


Meryl helped Milly up off the ground and they walked to the elevator. They waited for the elevator to be called to another floor. In a few seconds the elevator moved down to a lower level. The doors opened and the ladies were joined by Doc, Kevin and several other men. Meryl put her hand on the console. 

The console flashed the words: access denied. Meryl tried it again: access 

denied. Milly tried her hand on the console: access denied. Doc tried every code 

he knew. 

  


"Knives must have cut off entry to the whole floor from his room, " said Doc, 

  


"We'll have to cut in a way through the floor."

  


On the fifty-seventh floor James fired the rest of the stun-gun bolts, denting 

the door but it didn't come any closer to opening. 

  


"Where are you, Kevin?" he shouted as the minutes slipped by. 

  


He got tired of waiting and dragged the unconscious bodies of Michael and the others into an empty room across the hall. He found some rope there and tied the men securely 

to a support beam. He put a code into the room's console it hoped would keep the 

door locked. James sat down on the floor opposite the captives and waited. 

Doc was in the main control room surrounded by a dozen people looking at the 

master plan of the ship. 

  


"Vash sealed off every possible entrance to to floor fifty-seven except the 

elevator," Doc said as he scrolled through different screens of the floor plan. 

  


"The quickest way to get to the floor is to cut through the floor under the 

hallway. There's eight layers of metal so it'll take a while. James? Where's 

James?" asked Doc. 

  


"He's stuck on the fifty-seventh floor," said Meryl. 

  


"Damn," said Doc. "Get Martin and Karl. They'll know how to cut through the 

floor." 

  


The mass of people spread out from Doc's office searching for the two men. Meryl 

stayed behind. 

  


"Is Milly going to be okay?" she asked the doctor. 

  


"Yes, she was given a non-lethal dose. After about a day she'll be back to 

normal. She just needs to stay off her feet until then. Her baby will be fine 

too. This poison doesn't cross through the placenta." 

  


Meryl's eyes bugged out. "Pregnant! She never told me!" 

  


"She came in early this morning for the test results. Apparently she hadn't been 

feeling as well as usual. She's just about two months along. With all this 

happening today I'm not surprised if she hasn't told anyone yet." 

  


"Milly?" Meryl said vaguely. 

  


"Now Meryl, Milly will be fine. Vash and Knives should be your concern now." 

  


"I'll go down to the plant and tell you if there are any signs of Vash," she 

said. "That sounds like a good plan." 

  


Doc gave Meryl one of his radio pens and she took a blanket off an empty cot. 

She would've gotten her pair of binoculars from her room but that wasn't possible 

right now. She headed down to the plant room. After wiping up the blood on the floor and the hatch, Meryl made a little bed out of her 

blanket next to the hatch door. She sat down for a while and wondered why she'd completely missed Milly's sickness, why she hadn't heard the right rumor about Michael and his group. She lay on her blanket staring into the bulb hoping that the peaceful glowing light hadn't destroyed Vash, and that the humans hadn't destroyed Knives. She really hoped that psychopath was alive. He deserved having grapes shoved up his nose .

Suddenly Meryl heard a loud 'clank' coming from the plant. Meryl climbed on top of the cart next to the plant and looked inside. There was now a larger pile of metal bits on the 

plant bottom. One of the pieces on the far side of pile looked like a section 

of Vash's mechanical arm. Meryl looked back up into the bright glare of the 

bulb. She couldn't see him, but he had to still be there. She climbed back down to her 

blanket. Was there anything else she could be doing now? Sawing through metal 

wasn't her specialty, neither was talking with plants or figuring out computer 

codes. Now, she just had to wait. She radioed to Doc the news about Vash's arm. 

Doc was still hopeful Vash was alive. She tucked the pen into her pocket 

and lay back on the blanket. After about an hour of spinning her thoughts in 

circles and damning herself a thousand time for not hearing the right rumor at 

the right time she fell asleep. 


	9. 9

Seven hours later Karl and Martin were cutting through the last layer of the 

fifty-seventh floor. They had to carefully cut between wires and pipes and all 

of the other junk that was stuffed between each level of the ship. Each pipe had a 

shut-off valve and each wire had a fuse somewhere that had to be turned off. It 

was slow going but they hadn't been electrocuted, scalded or burned in the 

process yet.

  


In the plant room Meryl was awakened by a tapping sound. She got up and looked 

at the plant. Vash was smiling and looking at her from the inside of the bulb, 

tapping on the glass next to the hatch. Meryl jumped up, climbed up on the 

cart and unfastened the hatch. Vash pushed the hatch open, and slid gently to 

the floor landing on his feet. Meryl closed the hatch and Vash lifted her off 

the cart with both hands and hugged her to himself. 

  


"She wanted to heal me, Meryl. Suzume's wonderful." 

  


"Your scars are gone, Vash," said Meryl, her head over his shoulder. She was happy, very 

happy. But now she had to tell him about his brother. 

  


"Yes! I even have a new arm," he said gleefully as he set Meryl down and held 

out his new arm for her to inspect.

  


She looked at his arm briefly. 

  


"Vash, here, take my blanket." 

  


She picked up her blanket off the floor and averted her eyes as she handed it to 

him. He wrapped it around his midsection. She turned back to him but savored the look of contentment on his face for only a moment. 

  


"Michael got to Knives," said Meryl in a rapid burst of speech. Vash's face fell into 

a icy glare. 

  


"They drugged Milly and used her to get to into his room. They beat him very 

badly. We can't get up to the floor. Knives wants to die now. He got to a 

control panel and blocked our access to the floor when we went for help. He's 

locked in his room. James is stuck up there but he can't do anything. We can't 

get into the room. Martin and Karl are cutting through the floor. I can see how 

far along they are." 

  


Meryl took the pen out of her pocket. Vash grabbed it out of her hand.

"Doc? Doc?" Vash said as calmly as he could into the transmitter. 

  


"Vash! Are you okay? Do you need me down there?" said Doc from the main control 

room. 

  


"No. I'm fine. I heard about Knives." 

  


"They've cut through the last layer of the floor. They're near 

the observation windows on the fifty-sixth floor. We need your help up there." 

  


Vash handed the pen back to Meryl and then jumped from the top of the plant 

platform down to the lower level. He ran out of the room at his top speed. Meryl 

ran down the steps after him. Vash reached the fifty-sixth floor before Meryl 

got to the plant floor elevator. 

  


"Vash, we just broke through when Doc got your message," said Martin who was 

looking up in the hole in the hallway ceiling. Vash saw James' feet emerge from 

the hole. Martin steadied the man as he dropped down to the floor. 

  


"Vash!" James said as he got up from the floor. "I've got Michael, Dean, Thomas, 

and Mark tied up in the room next to Knives. I haven't heard anything from 

Knives for the past eight hours." 

  


Vash leaped up and grabbed the edge of the hole, crawling through to the top 

floor. He looked down at the men from the upper floor. 

  


"Don't let anyone up here until I tell you it's safe. They may have damaged a 

dampener." 

  


"Right, Vash, nobody, " said Karl. 

  


Vash ran down the hallway and slammed his hand down on the control panel outside 

Knives' room. It didn't open. 

  


"Knives," he shouted "open the damn door." 

  


There was no response. Vash picked up Meryl's cloak, took out several derringers 

and shot at the seam where the two doors met. He fired until he made holes just 

big enough to fit his fingers. The two doors creaked and groaned as Vash pulled 

them apart. He walked in the room and stared in disbelief. He saw his brother's 

form underneath his blood-soaked blanket in a corner of the room. Vash 

hesitated, flexing his fingers for a second before he pulled back a corner of 

the blanket. Bruises covered Knives' blood-stained face and part of his ear had 

been torn off. Vash put his hand on his brother's forehead. He felt nothing. 

Vash started to cry. 

  


"You weren't going to kill anyone anymore," he screamed as he slammed his fists 

on the bloody ground. 

  


Anger spread through every muscle in his body, inciting every nerve to build up 

their deadly power. Rem was gone. Wolfwood was gone. Knives was gone. He 

screamed again as the energy in his arms began to grow, surging up both his arms 

from his finger tips. 

  


Meryl reached the fifty-sixth floor. 

  


"Where's Vash?" she asked as she ran towards the men surrounding the hole. 

  


"Vash said we let no one up there until he says its safe. You're not going up." 

  


"What? I have to go up there, Vash could be in trouble." 

  


James held Meryl back yelling at her. 

  


"Vash is fine, Knives isn't going to hurt anybody right now." 

  


"Then you'll let me up. I saw what Knives looked like. Vash needs somebody up 

there with him," she yelled back.

  


Then they heard the scream. 

  


"If its not safe for him, its not safe for you lady," said James. 

  


"James, look at this," said Karl pointing to the hole. James and Meryl looked up 

the hole. A pink glowing light filled hallway and radiated down through the 

floor. It was accompanied by a loud high pitched warbling. 

  


"You have to let me up there now. This is what it was like at Augusta," Meryl 

screamed. 

  


"Shit," said Karl. 

  


He grabbed Meryl and hoisted her up to the hole. Meryl climbed through the 

jagged metal and twisted wires to the upper floor.

  


Vash didn't care any more. Failure. Nothing else. Always failure. The angel arm 

effect spread out from his fingers. Without this gun to focus the energy, the 

effect spread all over his body. Enormous wings spread out from his arms and 

back and scraped against the blood stained floor. 

  


"Vash, stop this. Stop it now!" Meryl shrieked as she entered the room. 

  


He turned and looked at her. She was going to die now. He couldn't stop it. He 

lay on the floor and waited for the blasts to emerge as his huge wings soaked up 

more of his brother's blood. Meryl stepped over his wings, and opened 

the cabinet door with her key. Her whole body was shaking as she took out the dampener. The energy in the room broke against her like waves and the whining noise grew louder and louder. 

  


Vash wanted his failure to be to be the last thing he saw on this damn planet. He looked back at his brother. Meryl moved toward him slowly and knelt next to his iridescent 

cracked skin. She thrust the spike of the dampener into his arm and was blown 

back against the wall as a thick octarine cylinder of purple energy arced to the 

dampener from both of his arms. Flowing through the coils, the energy circled 

his arm in the copper band and traveled down the spike into his arm. Vash arched 

his back and opened his mouth. He was in too much pain to scream as the energy 

coursed through his organs and into his brain. Vash blacked out as his mind 

received the massive jolt of energy. The pink glow faded from the room as the 

angel arm effect faded from his skin. His wings folded against his arms and back 

covering his body. Meryl picked herself up off the floor and stood against the far wall as Vash slowly regained consciousness. He picked the dampener out of his arm and threw 

it against the wall. Meryl hadn't been able to force the dampener far enough into his arm to allow it to fuse to the bone. Vash was still angry but now he was stunned. Vash's eyes were still glowing as he looked up at Meryl.

"Kill me," he said. "Kill me before I kill any one else."

  


Vash crawled towards her, his wings, which had not faded away with rest of the 

angel arm effect, folded out from his back. He whispered the same words to her 

again. Vash bumped against a jagged piece of metal as he crawled towards her. It 

had been part of the contrivance Vash had made to hold down Knives. Vash picked 

it up. Meryl kicked it out of his hand. He lashed out at Meryl with one of his 

wings and knocked her against the large concrete slab. Her head hit one of the 

corners and she fell to the floor. A trickle of blood ran down from her hair 

across her face. Vash picked up the piece of metal and brought it to his throat. 

  


"Needle noggin, put that damn thing down." 


	10. 10

  


  


Vash froze. Again he heard the voice emanating from inside his head.

  


"Drop it on the floor." 

  


Vash dropped it. He hadn't heard that voice in several months, not since the 

last time he resigned himself to die. 

  


"What just happened to your arm, idiot?" 

  


"It happened again," Vash replied. 

  


"No. Think, you dolt. Before that." 

  


"The plant regenerated it." 

  


"Then take Knives down to the damn plant. He's not dead. You can't tell 

everything by putting you hand on his head, idiot. That plant's a whole lot 

better at healing then you are." 

  


Vash's eyes stopped glowing and his wings faded away as he looked back at the 

form of his brother's body still wrapped in the blood-soaked blanket. He could feel 

pieces of bone sticking out of his brother's skin as he slid his hands 

underneath Knives' body. Vash carried his brother back to the hole. He handed down Knives' body to one of the men and went back to the room for Meryl. Vash took the 

transmitter pen out of Meryl's pocket. 

  


He radioed Doc in the control center. "Doc, James is going to be coming down with Meryl. She has a bad gash in her head. You'll want to look at her." 

  


He carried Meryl to the hole and crawled down with the unconscious women.

  


"Vash, what the hell happened?" asked James as Vash handed Meryl to him. "Make 

sure Doc looks at her. Her head was hit hard." 

  


Martin gave Vash his shirt. Vash wrapped it around his waist. Vash picked up 

Knives from where they had placed him on the floor. 

  


"He can't be alive, not after this long," said James. 

  


Vash walked away with his brother towards the elevator. 

  


"You two get the guns from the guard room and bring Michael's people down. 

Lock them in quarantine with Clara," said James to Karl and Martin. 

  


The two men pressed a few buttons on the wall and started talking to the guards. 

James caught up to Vash. They got into the elevator and James pressed the button 

for Doc's floor. 

  


"Did Augusta almost happen up there, Vash? Meryl said the light was just like 

Augusta. She said she could help you. We had to let her up. Augusta can't happen 

to this place."

  


Vash didn't reply. He stared straight forward like no one else existed. The 

elevator stopped at Doc's floor. James got off with Meryl. 

  


"Aren't you coming, Vash? Knives' looks like shit and your arm looks just like him." 

  


The elevator door closed. 

  


"Damn him," said James as he headed off to the control room with Meryl. 

Vash got down to the plant room. He set his brother on the floor. Vash took the 

blanket off his brother and saw the the full extent of the torture his brother 

had been through. The dampeners were still on his arms. They'd tried to pry them 

off, just to see what would happen but they had to be satisfied with the 

lacerations they'd left. Vash put one hand up to the glass on the base of 

the plant bulb. 

  


"I'm sorry to be back so soon. I have another being like me who is badly hurt." 

  


Suzume drifted down to him and placed her hand opposite his. 

  


"I'll help," she replied. He explained to her about the dampeners on Knives' 

arms.

  


"I can't take them off. Can you still help him?" he asked. 

  


She reduced her power output down to a low level Knives' dampeners could tolerate. 

  


James had left the dampener setting at maximum. Suzume told Vash it would be 

much more comfortable for her if it was at mid level. Vash went down to the 

controller. He adjusted the levels as she specified and walked back to the 

plant. The bright glow of the plant was greatly reduced. Vash opened the hatch 

and handed his brother over to the plant being. She took him by the shoulders 

and drifted up with him to the center of the bulb. Vash closed the hatch. He 

could see the plant being hold his brother. She passed one hand over his mangled 

body and her entire body started to glow brightly, but Vash could just still see both plant being's forms through the light.

  


Vash had no place to go now. His old room was covered with bits and pieces of 

metal and machines. His brother's room was covered in blood. Vash knelt on the 

floor in front of the plant and cried for a very long time. 

  


"Had enough yet? Do you feel better having cried about it?" the voice asked. 

  


"Why are you still talking to me, Wolfwood?" 

  


"I'm not doing this for you needle noggin. I'm doing this for Milly. She doesn't 

deserve to die because of you. You almost killed her, everyone on this ship and 

the next city over. No one cleared out the cities this time." 

  


"I didn't fire it. Why are you still talking to me?" 

  


"I'm not done with you yet. You haven't even noticed the gash in your arm." 

Vash looked down at the bloody hole in his arm where the plant dampener 

penetrated his arm. 

  


"You're lucky she's not any stronger or you may not have woken up from two angel 

arm blasts disintegrating your skull." 

  


"Maybe that would've been better than having a damn voice in my head." 

  


"I'm not done with you, Vash. Get up to Meryl and Milly in the hospital. They 

need to know you're alive." 

  


Vash reluctantly got up off the floor and went to Doc's room. He passed the quarantine room where the people involved in Knives' beating were tied up on the floor. He only looked in the room briefly, making sure Michael was there before moving on to Doc's medical room. 

  


When he arrived Doc was wrapping Meryl's head with a bandage as she lay unconscious on a gurney. 

  


"Vash," Doc said, "where did you take Knives? What happened to your arm? Your scars are gone!" said Doc as Vash entered the room. 

  


"The plant healed my scars. She's healing Knives right now. It'll take a lot 

longer with him. My arm could use a bandage." 

Doc finished wrapping Meryl's head, and he picked out a large piece of gauze and 

pressed it on Vash's bleeding arm.

"Its amazing, that all that power can be concentrated to heal a tiny cell. It's 

amazing, it really is. There's so much about the plants we don't know. You'll 

have to tell me what it was like when things quiet down a bit."

  


Vash pointed to Meryl. 

  


"She has a dent in her skull but she'll be fine in a few hours. This wound is to 

big to be from a derringer," Doc said as he looked Vash over for any other 

injuries.

  


"The little women has so many guns under her cape, I thought she might have shot 

you. Do all your friends from the outside carry concealed weapons?" 

  


"Yes, actually they do," Vash said, "but I won't let them take them into the 

cafeteria." 

  


Doc laughed. 

  


Eventually Vash's wound stopped bleeding and Doc finished wrapping it with a bandage. 

Vash thanked him and got into a hospital gown. 

  


"We need to talk, Vash." Vash sat down on the gurney next to Meryl. "That pink 

light came all the way down here. Did it almost happen again?" 

  


Vash looked at Meryl and didn't reply. 

  


"Vash, what happened?" 

  


"If you want me to leave I'll understand." 

  


"I don't want you to leave. Vash, I need to know what happened so we can try and 

prevent it happening again. This is your home as it has been for 80 years." 

  


"Even if I almost killed everybody today? He was just a pile of bones, Doc. I 

thought he was dead. The power comes freely when I'm angry or I want to use it. 

One of Knives' men called it out of me at Augusta." 

  


"Knives, did he make you do that today?" asked Doc. 

  


Vash looked over at the doctor. 

  


"No ... There's no place on this planet that's safe for me and Knives. I 

panicked. There's been this noose around my neck for the past 20 years after 

July. I just want it to go away, for everybody to go away. I wanted to die." 

  


Vash looked back at Meryl. "She stopped me with the dampener." He touched Meryl's arm with his hand. 

  


"I almost killed her anyway afterwards. She's got a lot of guts staying anywhere 

near me." 

"What can I do to help you, Vash?" 

  


Vash thought about what he really need. He needed his own planet. "Be reasonable," he told himself. 

"Keep everybody away from Knives. I have no idea what he's going to be like when he comes out of the plant. I need somewhere else to put him. I just can't keep him tied down in that room for the rest of his life. He may as well be dead." 

  


"Do you think you can use the recreation room? The power's been at minimum 

levels since we hit the atmosphere but after we get plant one working again we 

may be able to spare more power, now that we aren't fighting gravity and that 

typhoon anymore." 

  


Plant one was still healing in the bulb with plant four. There was another bulb to be repaired. 

  


"What are you going to do with Michael?" Vash asked. 

  


Doc knitted his eyebrows and pursed his lips. 

  


"There is only one thing I can do with all of them. Banish them to the outside. 

We're not set up to be a prison. We're too closed a society. We can't tolerate 

any violence against any resident of this ship." 

  


Vash thought about the gash on Meryl's head. 

  


"Did you hear anything I just told you?" he said raising his voice. 

  


"I almost killed everybody on this ship. Why aren't you throwing me out?" 

  


"Vash, you need to take care of Knives here. There's no other place. It's safer for 

everybody on this planet that you're here. For eighty years you never hurt a 

soul on board for any reason. The attack and the fall changed some of the people 

for the worse. They have to leave. We need to keep this society for people like 

you Vash, you are a peaceful man. Most of the young people know you are a good 

man and the ones who don't are tied up in that room." 

  


"What would you do with Knives, if I died." 

  


"We'd have to put him in a sleep chamber indefinitely until we had some way 

of dealing with him more effectively." 

  


Vash felt Meryl's arm move slightly beneath his hand. He quickly removed his 

hand and crossed his arms against his chest.

"We want you here Vash. You've been a father figure and a friend to many people 

on this ship. I'm amazed that you'd think of going back out there when you have 

that huge bounty on you." 

  


"A lot of people lost their fathers and mothers because of me. Besides, aren't you afraid of being found out? Aiding and abetting a criminal? If you let them go to the outside they'll tell the government that I'm here. Maybe they already have. I'm not safe anywhere. I don't want any more people to die because of me."

"We'll just have to prepare for when they do come then. We can manage. Vash, you 

need some rest. We can discuss this more later." 

  


Suddenly, Vash felt a small yet powerful fist hit his back. Vash slid off the 

gurney and fell to the floor. Meryl landed on his back and pummeled his head. 

  


"Idiot, pea-brained, spiny haired moron," she yelled. "Don't ever do that again. 

I can't leave you alone for one damn second." 

  


"Get her off," Vash shouted. "Doc, help!" 

  


Meryl fought back her tears as Doc pulled her off of Vash's back. 

  


"It doesn't seem like you have a concussion," Doc said to Meryl as he dragged her

from Vash and deposited her on a chair. 

  


"What were you saying about violence, Doc?" said Vash as he picked himself up 

off the floor. 

  


"Who's the one who hit me? It was either you or some demented depressed swan 

that happened to fly by," said Meryl as she tried to evade Doc who was 

attempting to corral her with outstretched arms. 

  


"There will be no beating on Vash, young lady," Doc said. 

  


"I'm used to it from her," Vash said, crossing his arms and getting back up on 

the gurney. "The welts usually go away after a week." 

  


Meryl darted past Doc and ran straight into Milly who walked into the room just 

in time to prevent any more pummeling. 

  


"I thought I heard you two," the tall lady said as she grabbed the snarling 

agent by the back of her collar. 

"Meryl, you have a wound on your head. You need 

your rest," said Milly as she picked up the smaller agent and placed her on an 

empty gurney. She pulled a sheet up to Meryl's chin and gave her a stern look. 

  


"Cut that out right now. You need to stay professional or the chief will be very 

mad at you because I'll tell him."

  


Meryl threw Vash a cold glare and turned away from him pulling the sheet over 

her head. Milly could hear her crying. Milly turned around to look at Vash.

  


"You really shouldn't ... Mr. Vash, what happened to your scars?" asked Milly in 

disbelief as she looked at Vash's healed body. They filled her in on the events 

that happened during and after the plant transfer. 

  


"You really think Knives will be okay?" Milly asked. 

  


"I don't know how the dampeners will affect his healing. There's a lot about the 

plants I never thought to ask about." 

  


"Are you going to be okay, Mr. Vash?" 

  


"I'll be fine, Milly. Sometimes I feel better when I'm around you two." Meryl 

poked her head up from underneath the sheet. Her eyes were red from crying. 

  


"Milly, we need to be on 24-hour surveillance for Vash and Knives. No more Mr. 

Happy Coffee for me." 

  


Doc sighed as he looked at his three patients. 

  


"You can all start your surveillance after you get some good rest." Doc pulled a 

blanket over Vash. 

  


"Stay in bed for at least a day, all of you, right here, right now." 

  


"Okay, Doc." said Milly. She headed out back to her bed. 

  


"You two stay right where you are," Doc said to Vash and Meryl. "I need to talk 

things over with James before I make any final decisions about Michael and the 

others. I will see you all tomorrow. Goodnight." 

  


Several hours later Vash sat up in bed. He couldn't sleep. His brother was alone 

right now with the plant. Anybody could come in that room. He got up quietly, 

placed his blanket over Meryl, and left the room. It was night outside and on 

board the ship. Very few people were up. Vash passed a few small observation 

windows showing the star-lit rocky landscape spreading out for miles. All of the 

moons were out. The fifth moon seemed to look back at him. Vash looked down at his unhurt new arm. His whole body was cased in metal now. This ship was the only place he could be. 

  


In the plant room Vash could see where Suzume had healed a section of his 

brother's neck. A light blue glow surrounded the plant lady's enormous hands, 

one of which was placed on his brothers head. Her other arm held the unconscious 

man underneath his arms. It looked like the dampeners weren't absorbing any of 

the low level of power that was slowly healing the man's body. Vash looked at 

the pile of metal bits on the bottom of the plant. He saw his earring. Vash 

reached up and felt his earlobe. Suzume had even healed that tiny innocuous 

hole. That earring had come in very handy, maybe Milly could pierce it again. 

Vash looked at the sleeping chamber that lay open on the cart. It would be so 

easy to just crawl in and forget about the whole world for a hundred years or 

more. Vash the Stampede would be gone and then he could really start over. Maybe 

that's what he should do. Build a two-person ship and leave this planet with his 

brother, find a new place and leave all humans and their laws and their 

vendettas and their tempers behind. 

  


"You never thanked her you idiot." 

  


Vash put his hands to the sides of his head, cringed, and sat down on the floor. 

  


"I didn't get a chance to. She was too busy pounding my back. Why are you still 

talking to me? Aren't you dead?" 

  


"Thank her and I'll go away." 

  


"Fine. I'll thank her." 

  


Vash heard the door to the plant room open. 

  


"Vash? Are you here? Vash?" said a familiar voice from the lower level of the 

plant room. 

  


"I'm up here, Meryl" said Vash. It was too late to hide. He never ever got a break, ever.


	11. 11

  


  


Meryl walked up the steps to the plant. She was holding his hospital blanket in her hand. 

  


"I thought you might be needing this." 

  


She put the blanket around his shoulders. Vash lay down on his side facing away 

from Meryl. He propped his head up with his hand. 

  


"Maybe I'm finally getting tired." 

  


Meryl adjusted the blanket over him. 

  


"I'm sorry I hit you Vash. Milly was right. I lose my temper way too easily. 

After I socked a few guys on the playground back home little me never got picked 

on again though."

"I know all about getting picked on," said Vash, not attempting to hide the 

sarcasm.

Meryl sat down next to him. Vash refused to look at her. Instead he looked up at 

his brother's form in the plant. 

  


Vash said, "Doc's going to banish them from ship. You might want to give them a 

few tips on living on the outside world. Maybe you can sell them some 

insurance." 

  


"Vash! How can you say that?" she blurted, grabbing Vash's arm and 

turning him towards her. 

  


"I had no idea what they were planning on doing to Knives. Do you think I was in 

on it? Is that what you're thinking? Then why the hell did I stop you from 

killing yourself? Why did I do that?" she yelled. 

  


She squeezed his arm tightly and ground her teeth together but didn't hit him. 

  


"Did you think I wanted to see you groveling in a mess of bloody feathers, 

begging to be killed? How many times have I saved your lousy butt? How many? 

I've lost track. Do you think I wanted to see your brother like that?"

  


She didn't hit him, she slapped him. 

  


"You deserved that, you dunce. Do you think I drugged Milly for cover and let 

them in? Do you think I'd want to hurt her? Maybe you are really as stupid as I 

though you we're when I first looked at your stupid spiky head."

  


Tears started to form in her eyes. She tried to slap him again but he caught her 

arm. 

  


"I'm sorry, Meryl," he said "I don't know who I can really trust anymore. This 

place was the only place I could call home."

  


"You can trust Milly and me. Haven't you learned that yet you numbskull?" 

  


"I'm sorry Meryl." 

  


A tear dropped from his cheek and landed on the hand Meryl had slapped him with. He released her, pulled the blanket over himself, and lay face down on the ground, sobbing. 

  


"I'm sorry, Meryl, I almost killed everybody here. I'm sorry."

Meryl put her hands on his shoulders and laid her head against his. 

  


"I forgive you, Vash, we all do." 

  


"Thank you for keeping me alive."

  


She stroked his hair as he lay his head down on his hands. 

  


"You need rest, Vash." 

  


Vash cried until he feel asleep. Meryl sighed and lay down crosswise from him 

using his side as a pillow. She crossed her arms on her chest and fell asleep.

  


Early the next morning Doc and James entered the plant room. 

  


"The power output is down to 19%, " James said as he looked at the controls. 

  


"We'll have to get the other plant up as soon as possible." 

  


Milly's voice came from a pen Doc was holding. 

  


"They haven't been to the cafeteria, but I can get you a pastry if you like." 

  


"No thank you, Milly. We'll keep looking," Doc said. 

  


He put the pen back in his pocket and looked at the controls. 

  


"The levels are set at 19%. Vash must know what he's doing." 

  


The two men looked up at the plant. 

  


"You can actually see them both in there," said Doc. 

  


The men walked up the steps to the plant. They just saw Meryl's feet sticking 

out from behind the cart. They walked over to her and saw her lying with her 

head resting against Vash. 

  


"Hmm ... I have no idea what's going on between these two but she definitely 

takes her surveillance seriously" said Doc. 

  


"After yesterday," said James, "I should write a letter to that insurance 

company and start chipping in a bit extra for her wages. As long as she can keep 

Augusta from happening I don't care what she does." 

  


"You should write that letter. I think her boss might appreciate it."

The two men looked at Knives, his body slowly being reshaped back into its 

normal form. 

  


"Do you think Vash could do this, since the plants can?" asked James. 

  


"These plants have been learning how to controlling their power for over a 

hundred years. Vash didn't know he had power like that until 20 years ago. 

Knives developed his power in other ways. I don't know what either of them have 

the potential to do. Whatever their potential is, it must be developed safely. 

We have to keep them both here. There's no doubt about it. Even though they've 

harmed us we can't let this opportunity to learn so much about these life forms 

be wasted." 

  


Doc looked down at Vash. 

  


"We'll leave the prisoners outside the ship today with a little bit of money. 

Michael's little girl decided to go with them. She's only nine. It's a shame 

both her parents decided to participate in a murder." 

  


Doc looked at Meryl lying peacefully on the floor. 

  


"We'll have to figure out some way of dealing with the government so the little 

lady doesn't have to use her derringers any more." 

  


Doc pulled the pen out of his pocket. 

  


"Milly, we found them. They're in the plant room ... they're fine." A squeal of 

glee emitted from the pen. 

  


"I think we'd better let them sleep a little longer before they have some food," 

Doc said. 

  


Doc and James left the room to prepare the prisoners for their expulsion. 

  


A month later the prisoners were left outside the ship and were not heard from again.

  


The plant engineers got used to Milly or Meryl being in the room when Vash was 

directing them with their plant work. The transfer of plant number one, Tori, 

back to her bulb went smoothly. Milly insisted on being present with her stun 

gun and Meryl had all 50 of her derringers loaded and ready. Vash and the 

insurance girls stayed in plant room two in the evenings. There were three cots 

set up and the trio often played cards in the evenings. Plant room two was 

blocked off from all the other ship residents until Knives could be safely taken 

out.

It took Vash about an hour one evening to figure out what code Knives had 

used to seal off the fifty-seventh floor. Vash unlocked the elevator and the 

three of them went up to retrieve their items. Vash had to go back to that room. 

Both of the women accompanied him. He looked at his little pile of clothes in 

the corner of the room; every piece had been ruined. 

  


"We can make you some more, Vash," said Milly. 

  


"It's not a problem at all. Let's get out of here," said Meryl as she tugged 

Vash towards the mangled door. 

  


They walked past the observation windows back to the elevator. A few of the 

engineers had patched up the hole in the floor. The women packed their suitcases 

and escorted Vash to the elevator. 

  


"Thank you both for being here," he said to them as they took the elevator to 

the cafeteria. "I do need you." 

  


"You're welcome, Mr. Vash," said Milly. 

  


Meryl smiled and looked at her feet. Since Meryl was escorting Vash full-time, 

another resident had inherited the Mr. Happy Coffee apron and the job.


	12. 12

Another month passed before Knives was ready to come out of the plant, but one evening Suzume descended from the center of the bulb with Knives and tapped on the glass. Vash, Knives, and Meryl turned up from their card game and 

saw the large plant being holding Knives. He was completely healed. A few weeks before, Vash had finished refurbishing another room to hold Knives. He also had started to work on fixing the recreation room after it was left to grow wild for 80 years. Meryl and Milly had been very willing helpers but there was much more work to be done before the recreation room would be ready for a plant being. 

  


Knives was unconscious as Suzume handed him out to Vash. Vash had asked her to 

leave him unconscious when he was ready to be taken out so he could wake up in 

familiar surroundings. Vash wrapped his brother in a blue sheet, leaving his 

head uncovered. He picked his brother up in his arms and quickly left the room. 

Knives' new room was located on the plant floor. The hallway to the storage area 

had many people busily walking through even at this late hour. Meryl and Milly 

cleared a passage while Vash followed with his brother. Knives' hair had grown 

out and to many people who saw his face he was imperceptibly different from Vash.

  


Vash carried Knives to a room that had been used to store spare inter-ship 

communication equipment. Doc had decided to sell and trade a lot of their 

unneeded equipment to the outside and now several of the equipment rooms were 

emptied. Much of Doc's time was now spent in negotiations with the planet government 

for various kinds of lost technology. 

  


Vash placed his brother on a real bed. It had a pillow, burgundy sheets and a 

blanket with a kip-kip bird that Milly had sewn. There was also a table in the room with three chairs and the walls had been painted a light cream color. On one side of the room was an electronic encyclopedia set and a computerized display device. A bed with dark 

blue bedding was on the other side of the room. Vash sat with Knives on his bed 

while Meryl and Milly waited at the table. Knives woke up in a few minutes and 

stared at his brother. 

  


"Where were you?" he asked telepathicaly.

  


Vash rolled up the sleeve on his left arm and responded in the telepathic plant speech. 

  


"I was shot seven times in the plant room. Suzume pulled me into her plant. She 

healed me. I didn't know anything had happened to you. The man who shot me ..." 

  


"... was human of course." 

  


" ... was one of the men who got to you. They drugged Milly and used her to get 

to your room. James, Kevin, and Meryl found you." 

  


"I remember them. They came too late." 

  


"You didn't let them help you." 

  


"I was beyond help." 

  


"Meryl told me about you when I came out of the plant. Suzume agreed to help 

you. She said she'd help any friend of mine. You're healed now Knives." 

Knives sat up in his bed, looked at his arms and flexed his fingers and toes. 

Several of his toes had been missing the last time he looked. Knives glanced 

around the room and saw Meryl and Milly exchanging wary glances at the table. 

Vash hadn't fastened Knives down this time. 

  


"You've done a lot with the place. How long has it been?" 

  


"About two months. We're on a different floor. The girls helped me set it up." 

  


"Why aren't they saying anything?" Milly whispered to Meryl. 

  


"Shhh," whispered Meryl. 

  


Knives smiled at the two hopeless humans. He really couldn't take such pathetic 

people seriously. 

  


"Where is the scum that beat me?" 

  


"They've been banished to the outside." 

  


"Of course you wouldn't kill them." 

  


"I almost killed everybody." 

  


"Vash?" 

  


Vash pushed up his other sleeve. There was a fist sized red burn scar 

surrounding a puncture scar on his upper arm. 

  


"I made an extra dampener. Meryl put it on my arm before I could fire." 

  


"That must have hurt." 

  


"YES IT DID." 

  


"Why did you do it? What happened to love and peace?" 

  


"You were beaten to shreds. I lost control. I wanted to die. Meryl tried to stop 

me from killing myself after the angel arm effect went away." 

  


"My opinion of the little one is beginning to improve Vash. Maybe she is a 

useful spider." 

  


Knives looked over at Meryl. For a human she really seemed feeble. The other one 

didn't seem as wretched except when you tried to talk to her. 

  


"Did Meryl have that Mr. Happy Coffee apron on?" 

  


"I don't remember." 

  


"Probably not." 

  


"Knives, I don't want to have to tie you down again. We have to declare a truce. 

You wont hurt or kill any more humans and I wont lock you down to your bed."

  


"Agreed." 

  


"You won't have to wait here long. Maybe another month. I'll have the recreation 

room working by then. You can stay in there." 

  


Knives looked back at Meryl. 

  


"Vash, does that little one look a bit like Rem to you?" 

  


"Yes, she does," Vash said out loud. 

  


"Hunh? What? Did I do something wrong?" Meryl said, startled by the sudden 

speech and the strange gaze of the two men. 

  


They didn't reply. Knives' gaze turned to Milly. 

  


"The large one comes in handy too, doesn't she?" he said in the plant language. 

  


"Yes, she does," Vash said out loud looking at the larger agent. 

  


Milly giggled slightly and gave Meryl a very confused look. 

  


"What are you two doing?" asked Meryl. 

  


"Nothing," said Vash. 

"You're enjoying this aren't you Vash?" said Knives silently.

  


"They've been following me everywhere. A man needs a little privacy." Vash replied in the same fashion. 

  


"What is it that we both do?" Meryl asked, looking over as the two men smiled at 

her. 

  


"Many things, many things," said Knives out loud. 

  


"Like what?" said Meryl, her eyes widening. "What have you been telling him, 

Vash?" 

  


"Did you hear anything about them, Knives?" asked Vash. 

  


"No, I didn't hear anything." 

  


"You just said 'Yes she does'," said Meryl. 

  


"Did I?" 

  


"You did, Vash," said Knives, "Odd, I didn't hear anything before that though. Are you feeling okay, Vash?" 

  


"Just fine, Knives." 

  


"They are fun to play with aren't they, Vash?" said Knives silently to his brother. 

  


"Yes, they are." 

  


Meryl grabbed Vash's arm and hauled him up off the bed. 

  


"What are you doing, Vash?" she demanded. 

  


"Nothing at all. I'm just sitting with my brother." 

  


"They have a way of making the rest of the world go away, don't they?" said Knives silently.

  


"Yes they do," said Vash to the room. Meryl screamed and Milly grabbed her before the little agent could land a prepared kick on Vash's leg. 

"

I see why the large one is useful." 

  


"Are you feeling better, Knives?" asked Milly as Meryl continued to flail her 

appendages in Vash's direction. 

  


"I'm feeling fine, Milly. I assume I'm quarantined here until you're done with 

the recreation room?" 

  


Meryl stopped flailing and Milly released her. 

  


"What? How did you know about the recreation room? ARRG. I give up. Let's go to 

bed, Milly." 

  


"Vash, talking like this is fun but you should read their minds. I think you'd 

be surprised to know what these two are really thinking." 

  


The inner door to the room closed behind the two women and the outer door opened. The insurance agents had a room right next door. Between the two rooms they shared 

an intercom that emitted a loud beep whenever the doors to the boys' room opened. The women walked back to the plant room, gathered their things and settled down in their new room for the evening. Back in the men's room, Vash sat down on his bed. 

  


"Why don't you read their minds, Vash? It doesn't hurt your humans." 

  


"Because I like them and I want them to keep liking me." 

  


"Don't you want to know how the humans really feel?" 

  


"I already know. These two aren't afraid of me. Meryl wasn't afraid of me even 

when I was about to kill her. I don't want to talk about this any more." 

  


"Fine, but the big one is pregnant. She thought about her baby a lot just now." 

  


"It definitely wasn't me, Knives. You remember that Gung-Ho Gun you sent out to 

chaperone me?" 

  


"The priest? You're not kidding, are you?" 

  


"No. I can hear him sometimes. Like he's still talking to me, just like you are 

now. I don't know how." 

  


"You had his cross." 

  


"I left it there. You were more important." 

  


"Her kid will be just like us, Vash, no father, and a pathetic human mother 

living in a hunk of metal surrounded by people who will always regard it as an 

outsider. Do you want that to happen, Vash?" 

  


"What are you saying, Knives? When are you concerned about anyone's family?" 

  


"They make you happy. I didn't want to kill Rem because you really loved her. 

These two are like that, even that little one. Besides, they are fun to play 

with." 

  


"I love a lot of people Knives, a lot of people that were killed here because of 

you. I don't want to hear about you getting concerned over some 'pathetic 

insect's' baby. I don't know what you're really thinking, Knives, but I don't 

want to hear it." 

  


"Goodnight, Vash." 


	13. 13

  


A month passed. Vash was almost finished with the recreation room now that he 

and the agents could devote their full time to it. Vash had just finished 

transplanting some flowers from a hydroponics garden when Doc called him through 

his new earring. 

  


"Vash, the head of the planet's government investigations department is here and they 

want to see you and Knives immediately."

  


Vash went to his room. 

  


"Knives, the government's here. You know what to do. If you don't we're both 

dead." 

  


"Don't worry, Vash. I'll behave." 

  


Knives turned off the encyclopedia article on brown recluse spiders. For along 

time Knives had enjoyed the thought of his brother constantly fleeing for his 

life from the humans he loved so much but Vash didn't deserve to build up any 

more terrible scars. Even Knives had cringed when he saw them. Vash took his 

brother by the hand and quickly walked through the hallways of the ship with him to a meeting room near the control center. Everybody had their story ready. Of course it wasn't just that the head of investigations was here. Positioned around the ship were several trucks filled with well armed soldiers. This was the best lead they had gotten 

on Vash the Stampede and they weren't going leave any option open for him 

getting away. 

  


The head investigator was a red-haired middle-aged women with a short stocky 

build. She wore a black Stetson hat , dark gray frock coat, steal blue shirt, and 

blank pants. She had a stiff poker face and a static gaze that even made Knives 

uneasy. Doc was seated at the table. The woman was accompanied by two 

large male soldiers. She gestured that Knives and Vash take a seat at the table. 

  


"I'm detective Carson and these are detectives Anderson and Saunders." The two 

assistants sat down at the table but the broad-shouldered woman put her hands on 

the edge of the table and remained standing. The two men could see the two 

six-shooters on either side of her belt. 

  


"We're here investigating a report that Vash the Stampede and his brother are 

being housed here." 

  


She looked at the two men coldly through her gray eyes, keeping track of every 

muscle on their faces for any sign of fright or doubt. Vash could tell that 

either of her black gloved hands could fire either one of those guns in an 

instant. 

  


"The mayor of this city told me that you are Kawaru and Yasai and you are 

brothers. Is that correct?" 

  


"That's correct ma'am," said Vash. "I'm Kawaru and this is my brother, 

Yasai." 

  


The investigator looked at the two brothers closely. 

  


"I'm going to have to ask you two to remove your shirts." 

  


The two men obediently took off their garment. She walked over and looked at the 

burn scar on Vash's arm and the unusual copper bands on Knives arms. 

"What are those arm bands you're wearing?" she asked Knives. 

  


"I have a painful joint condition in my arms and since copper bracelets helped 

my wrists so much I thought I'd try copper bands to help my elbows and 

shoulders. They work great. I haven't had any pain for weeks," he said not 

moving any extra muscle in his face. 

  


"Its a folk remedy from the old planet. Doc said I should try it. It really works." 

  


"And how did you get this scar on your arm, Mr. Kawaru?" 

  


"It was during the plant transfer a few months ago. A technician was working on 

a section of wall, he wasn't looking where he was going and I was stabbed with a 

soldering iron." 

  


She scanned the two men again, took a clean rag out of her pocket and dipped it 

in a glass of water on the table. She walked over to Vash and rubbed his 

shoulder with the cloth. She looked at the cloth. There was no sign of makeup. 

  


"Stand up, please, " she asked him. 

She looked at Vash's back and examined his hands closely. The creases in his 

hands were the same. 

  


"And you." 

  


Knives stood up. She looked at the man briefly and examined his hands. "You both 

can sit down and put your shirts on." They did. The woman set the cloth down and 

crossed her arms. 

  


"What's your story as to how you got here." 

  


Vash spoke, "We've been told that we were found in the desert outside of Inepril 

twenty four years ago. Some crew people found our parents killed by bandits. The 

bandits had taken everything except for us. Apparently they weren't into the 

slave trade. We don't know how old we are. Doc thought we might have been two 

years old at the time. We don't remember anything except this ship."

  


She kept trying to stare through to the other side of their faces. Both of them 

were the exact image of the man reported to be Vash the Stampede by the 

residents of Kasted City. Many people had seen the outlaw. Huge scars, metal bolts in 

his back; he looked terrible. The same man was reported to be Vash the Stampede 

by that doctor from Stansberg. The doctor had been furious. He had had to send his 

letter twice before he'd gotten any response. There were two agents helping Vash 

the Stampede in that city. Vash had brought his brother back from the desert 

with over a dozen bullet wounds between them, the doctor had said. The men were 

declared dead from an allergic reaction (she didn't believe that for an 

instant), and the agents and the bodies had disappeared that evening. The same 

agents were now residents of this city, living next to these two men. These men 

fit the description of Vash the Stampede exactly except for the fact that they were both almost completely uninjured. Huge scars and bullet wounds just don't go away after a 

few months. Plastic surgery can only do so much. Someone with a mechanical arm 

doesn't just grow their arm back. The residents of the ship hadn't gained any 

new technologies, they'd just retained the old ones. Growing organs was beyond 

them. This man called Kawaru showed no signs of injury beyond that burn scar, no 

bullet wounds at all. The informant said he had shot Vash several times in an 

attempt to apprehend him two months ago after Vash had beaten his brother close 

to death. She thought this was going to be easy. Identify them by their wounds 

and arrest them. Her men had a whole array of weapons underneath their coats 

just waiting to be used. 

  


"Have you ever been on the outside since you were brought here?" 

  


"Yes, right after the fall we went to L.R. Town. That's where we got the copper 

for those bands. Those insurance agents latched onto us there," said Knives. 

  


"Why did you bring them here?" 

  


"They were bored and we thought they were cute," said Knives. 

  


"One's pregnant already," added Doc. The woman looked at the doctor. 

  


"When's she due?" 

  


"About 5 months." 

  


That fit. Every bit of data on board the ship fit their story. 

  


"When you were out there, what did you hear about Vash the Stampede?" 

  


"The agents told us he looked a lot like us but he got away from them outside 

L.R. Town. They thought we were cuter than him, so they decided to follow us for 

a while. They're not exactly the most dedicated people if you know what I mean, 

so if it weren't for Yasai's blunder with the big one we'd probably have left 

them there." 

  


Knives glared at his brother. 

  


"You're still blundering with that small one aren't you?" 

  


Vash didn't reply. 

  


"They had brought the ladies back with them," detective Carson thought. So they 

weren't womanizers of the worst kind. Maybe they were just unfortunate idiots. She still wondered if scars could lie. 

  


"I'd like to see the two agents now," she announced. 

  


"They're waiting in the next room," said Doc. 

  


"You two wait here. Don't let them leave," said the detective to her two assistants. Doc showed her to the next room and accompanied her inside. Two very 

different women were seated at the table. There was a small one with dark black 

hair wearing a tight, red, short-sleeved top and a tiny black skirt. The large 

one had her brown hair tied up into a pony tail with a large white bow. Her dark 

blue dress hung closely to her ample frame and showed off her rounding belly. 

  


"You are the insurance agents Meryl Strife and Milly Thompson?" 

  


"Yes! We are!" said Milly smiling broadly at the detective. 

  


"I'm Meryl and this is my partner Milly," said the smaller one as she took out a 

brush and started to brush her short hair. 

  


"We're detectives just like you, kind of," said Milly folding her hands on the 

table. 

  


"Where did you meet Kawaru and Yasai?" she asked. Meryl sighed loudly and set 

her elbow on the table propping up her head in her hand. 

  


"Well it was like this: we had just lost that idiot Vash and his even more of a 

dork brother in Stansberg. It mean it was, like, so awful, we had just gotten 

those two patched up in the hospital they just ditched us!" 

  


"It was so totally awful," added Milly. 

  


"And, like, they never said thanks, like not once, so we just decided to ditch 

their dumb depressing lousy butts in return and have a nice party in L.R. Town 

where we picked up those two hunky chunks I bet you've already met! Man they 

really just drove me wild when I saw them! Like, okay, Yasai is really into 

herbal remedies and stuff which is really dumb since this is a desert planet but 

Milly here thought he was a stud and she's proved he is so here we are." 

  


Milly spoke up, "This is a way nifty place to be. It's niftily air conditioned 

and you don't need money for anything and there are all these pretty things with 

colored lights that glow and the food is good too. They have kiniwinwis and 

cantalantolope and all kinds of stuff we've never seen before! Are you going to 

stay for dinner?" 

  


Inside the detective, her guts turned at the thought of all the money Bernardelli was wasting on these two nitwits. 

  


"Bernardelli said you two hadn't written a new report for about three months. 

Why am I supposed to believe that you two didn't run away with Vash the Stampede 

and his brother?" 

  


"Because, like, did you read our reports? Man that guy has all this freaky crap 

happening to him every where and, like, I was just getting Sick. Of. It. I 

needed some SPACE." 

  


Meryl stood up and spread her arms out demonstrating space to the detective. 

  


"There's lots of SPACE here." 

  


Meryl set her hands down on her hips. 

  


"And so, like, when they took off, we took off and we just ended up here. Pretty 

nifty, eh?" 

  


Meryl sat down as Milly cocked her head and leaned forward looking at the 

detective. 

  


"Oh, wow, that is a really cute shirt. Where did you get it? It really makes you 

look powerful, yet feminine. It's really nifty." 

  


"I think we've made a mistake coming here, Doctor," said detective Carson. "I 

wish you the best of luck with these two; I really do feel for you. I strongly 

suggest that those two men don't go back outside this ship until we've captured 

Vash the Stampede. With a sixty billion double dollar bounty mistakes are easy 

to make." 

  


The detective collected her two assistants from the other room and Doc showed 

her out of the ship. Meryl, Milly, Vash, Knives, and Doc watched from an 

observation window as the detective boarded one of the troop trucks and the 

entire convoy of eleven trucks and six tanks drove away. 

  


"It's finally over for you, Vash," said Doc as he patted Vash on the back. Tears 

were in Vash's eyes. He pressed his hands to the glass as he saw the convoy 

getting smaller and smaller in the distance. 

  


"I think we should celebrate," said Doc. 

  


"Vash, know how I'm going to celebrate?" 

  


Vash's body froze into position. Doc's and Milly's did as well. Meryl fell to 

the ground. Knives picked her up and carried her down the hall, speaking directly into Vash's mind.

"You took away my angel arms, Vash, but the plant told me how I could use my 

telekinesis without any build up of power. You didn't think I was unconscious 

the whole time in there, did you? You're free, Vash. I behaved. I gave you what 

you wanted and now you'll give me mine. This little one's been useful for a human. Useful spiders can make useful webs. You don't deserve to have both of them. I'm going to be extra nice to you, Vash. I'm going to leave almost all of the other humans alone. I'm going to find the ones who beat me and kill them. You killed the man who threatened Meryl and Milly. It's only fair that I deliver retribution on my attackers. Don't come after me. I can keep you and everyone on this ship like this forever if I wanted to."

After a few minutes of silence Vash saw Knives walk out of the ship away over the rocky 

landscape carrying a small bag on his back and holding Meryl unconscious in his arms. Knives released Vash and the others from their frozen position an hour later. Vash ran 

to the ship entryway as fast as he could. Just before he reached the door he was 

frozen again. 

  


"I'm not going to let you try, Vash. Remember that cave we found about two 

iles from here when we were in the desert. The one with the spring close to the 

entrance? It'll make a cozy home." 

Vash backed away from the entrance and tried to run to the control panel. He was 

frozen every time he tried to get near it. The last time he ran towards the door 

he was flung hard against the opposite wall. 

  


"Stop fighting Vash. You can't win." 

  


Vash went up one floor and looked outside of the ship. The guards on duty at the entrance gate were slumped over. Had Knives killed them? 

  


"No, I didn't kill the slugs, you idiot. Those humans are yours. If you send any 

of them out to find us they will die." 

  


Vash radioed Doc. 

  


"Doc can you open the entryway from the control room? I can't get to them down 

here. Knives won't let me near the door." 

  


"I'll check." A few moments later the doctor radioed back to him. 

  


"Vash, I can't get near the controls either. I can't open the doors from here. Should I send someone down to help you?" 

  


"Tell everyone to stay away, Doc. Knives will kill them if they try to leave." 

  


"Understood, Vash." 

  


Vash went back down to the entrance. Every time he tried to get out he was 

thrown back against the wall. 

  


"You took Rem away from me, Knives. I'm not going to let you get Meryl." 

  


"Yes, you are, Vash, and just like before there's nothing you can do about it. 

All the other humans except the ones who hurt me are yours. I'll kill them and 

Meryl will help me. Legato agreed to help me exterminate the humans right away. He recognized my superior powers immediately. She'll call me her master eventually." 

  


Vash could feel the anger growing in him again. He lay down on the ground and panted, tears welling up in his eyes. He tried to think of Rem, her voice, her laughter. He tried to get to the entrance again and was frozen in place just before he touched the control for the door. 

  


"I won't hurt her, Vash. I'm being completely truthful." 

  


Knives threw his brother across the hallway. The pain of hitting the wall brought out more of the anger in him. His nerves twitched with anticipation. It was hopeless. The more Vash tried, the madder he got. He couldn't do it; he couldn't risk doing that again. Vash lay down on against the far wall. 

  


"I've given her her mind back Vash. She's very loyal to you."

  


Vash screamed, "Don't do this, Knives. Don't hurt her. Bring her back, please." 

  


Vash trembled on the ground, his last shreds of sanity breaking. 

  


"Stop it Knives, bring her back." 

  


"You don't deserve someone as loyal as she is. She reminds me a lot of Legato."

  


Vash thought he could hear Meryl screaming. 

  


"I'll come back with her once we're done killing those humans. After tonight it 

won't be long before she'll help me. I'll tell you how the evening goes." 

  


Meryl's screaming got louder and louder in Vash's head. Vash's connection with 

reality snapped. 

  


"What? You?" were the lasts words he heard from Knives. 

  


All Vash could do was tremble on the floor curled up against the wall, his deadly aching arms tucked against his chest as he thought of Rem, and her song and her warm laughter. She was there in front of him. He was floating in the clouds now with Rem, wasn't he?


	14. 14

Hey, needle noggin, you're blocking the hallway!" yelled a familiar voice. 

  


The voice wasn't hers, it was that other voice he heard when he had failed. He could still see Rem in front of him, but she was turning away from him now, slowly disappearing. Vash put his hands on the side of his head and screamed, his body still shaking. A strong kick from a large foot incased in a large boot brought him fully back to reality. 

"I said, you're blocking the hallway." 

  


It was the same voice, but it was coming from outside of Vash's head. The trembling man uncurled himself and looked upward. A man who looked a hell of a lot like Wolfwood stood there with Knives slung over his shoulder and he was holding a very 

bedraggled Meryl by her hand. Behind them were the guards that had been incapacitated on the archway. Vash looked up at them not believing what he was seeing. The man kicked Vash again. Vash put his back against the wall and drew his knees up to his 

chest. 

  


"Stop that, Wolfwood," said Meryl looking up at the man. 

  


She knelt down beside Vash, took his hands off his head, and held them in her 

own. Vash's hands were still trembling as she held them. He looked closer at 

Meryl. Her wrists were bruised and she was covered with a layer of dirt and 

sand. She was there looking at him but he couldn't believe it. He closed his 

eyes and continued to tremble. 

  


"Vash?" she said as she put one hand on his forehead. 

  


He opened his eyes. They were still there. 

  


"I couldn't get the doors to open, Meryl. I couldn't get out," he said. 

  


"The guards told us what happened, Vash." 

  


"Did he hurt you?" Vash quietly asked. 

  


"No. Wolfwood was in another cave up there. He heard me." 

  


"Get up off the floor needle-noggin. I want to find Milly." 

  


Vash was still stunned. He stood up slowly and looked face to face with the dead 

priest, Wolfwood, still dressed in his black attire. 

  


"Are you here to kill me?" Vash asked the imposing man.

  


"No, you idiot. What the hell happened to you? Meryl's in worse condition than 

you are. What are you freaking out about?"

  


"You. Knives. Meryl. Why are you here?" 

  


"I'll explain it later, Vash. What am I supposed to do with this?" 

  


The man in black pointed to Knives. Vash had to think. He didn't want to have to 

think right now. 

  


"We'll put him in a sleep chamber," he said. 

  


One of the guards radioed Doc that Knives, Meryl, and the preacher in black were 

back. Vash's hands were still shaking as he walked through the ship. Meryl put 

her arm around his waist. 

  


"I'm sorry, Meryl," he said. 

  


"Stop your being sorry until we get this body off my shoulder," said Wolfwood as 

he walked behind Vash. It had to be the real man.

  


They went to plant room one where the specialized plant sleeping chamber was 

stored. Vash turned on the controls and several lights blinked on in the front 

of the chamber. The glass door to the chamber opened with a healthy purring 

noise. Wolfwood set Knives in the chamber. The hatch closed automatically and 

shut with a loud click. Vash adjusted the controls to the settings used for a 

plant being. 

  


"We can lock him in a room down the hallway." 

  


More equipment had been traded to various businesses and another storage 

room had been cleared of its contents. Vash and Wolfwood carried the chamber to 

the room. 

  


"Is there any chance he can get out of here?" asked Wolfwood as he set his end 

of the chamber down. 

  


"Not while he's unconscious, as far as I know," replied Vash. 

  


Meryl peered in the chamber as it filled with gas. 

  


"Is there really any way to keep him from using his power?" 

  


"I'll have to ask someone," said Vash as he checked the controls one more time. 

  


The three left the room. 

  


"Now, where's Milly?" demanded Wolfwood, smiling at Vash for the first time. 

  


"She's probably in the control room with Doc. Meryl, you can take him there." 

  


"Where are you going, Vash?" Meryl asked as Wolfwood tugged her towards the 

door. 

  


"I need to talk to someone." 

  


Vash walked back to plant room two. He put his hand to Suzume's bulb. She 

responded immediately floating down to him. 

  


Up in the control room Meryl assured Milly she was okay and Meryl told her that she 

had somebody to introduce. 

  


"Hey, big girl!"

  


Milly's eyes opened wide. She squealed and plowed into Wolfwood. He hugged her 

tightly and stroked her long hair with his hands. 

  


"I'm not going anywhere for a long time, Milly." 

  


She kissed his cheek and both of them started to cry. Doc quietly led Meryl out 

of the room. 

  


"Those two should probably be alone for a while," he whispered to her. "You 

should get those scrapes on your elbows cleaned up, young lady." 

  


Doc brought Meryl over to his medical office and got out a bottle of iodine. He 

put a bit of the solution on a piece of cloth and started to clean her scraped 

elbows. 

"Were you hurt anywhere else, Meryl?"

  


"No. Not badly." Meryl thought about Vash's miserable condition, trembling in 

corridor. 

  


"You may want to look at Vash. He looked really awful when we saw him at the 

entrance."

  


"I'd like to take a look at that preacher, too. A doctor doesn't get to examine 

a man like him often. I hope he'll stay for a while." 

  


"He'll want to stay wherever Milly is, Doctor." 

  


Meryl noticed the wedding ring on Doc's finger for the first time. 

  


"We're you married, Doc?" Meryl asked the man as he dabbed a bit more iodine on 

her wounds. 

  


"Yes, for 37 years I was married to a wonderful woman. We had three children and 

they had children, and I'm actually a great-grandfather to eleven great-grand 

children and all of them want to see the outside." 

  


Doc taped two gauze pads over her elbows. 

  


"Are you sure you're not hurt anywhere else?" 

  


She had a few bruises on her wrists and legs but they would clear up over time. 

  


"Nothing serious. You should take a look at Vash, Doc. That man, he always has 

one disaster after another. I wonder what's next." 

  


Doc sighed. 

  


"Even if he has an open wound somewhere he always tells me he's fine and that 

nothing's wrong with him. It amazes me that you got him to trust you so fast. It 

took me over fifty years to find out what his brother was really like. I think 

that you two have a much greater influence over him than you think." 

  


"Was Vash ever involved with anyone on the ship? He's been here for 80 years, 

hasn't he?" 

  


"There were several ladies, you worked with a few of them in the cafeteria, but 

once they heard that he could talk to the plants their interest seemed to go to 

other men. A few humored him a while and then ended up dropping his heart on the 

ground. He stopped going after the ladies for a while but once he went searching 

for his brother he started back up again. There were so many women out there, he 

thought he'd find one, but by then he had that bounty on his head. Vash is lucky to be 

alive. I guess he's happy with that."

  


Vash's voice came from a pen in Doc's pocket. 

  


"Doc? I found out how to take away Knives power completely. I'll need your 

help." 

  


"I'm in my medical room with Meryl. Should I come down to the plant room?" "No, 

we need to plan things out up there. I'll be up." 

  


Wolfwood and Milly came into the room. They both were beaming. 

  


"Doc, can Wolfwood stay here for a while?" Milly asked. 

  


"Yes he can. Anybody who helps you ladies is free to stay," said Doc. 

  


"Oh, yay!" said Milly and she started to describe to Wolfwood all the beautiful 

places on the ship she would have to take him especially the observation 

deck. 

  


It was early in the morning by now. Meryl was exhausted. She just wanted to get 

some rest and find out about Wolfwood tomorrow. She was happy for Milly, very 

happy for Milly and her baby. She had a feeling that Wolfwood wanted more than 

anything to be a good father. Vash entered the room out of breath. 

  


"Doc, you need to do brain surgery on Knives." 

  


"Why am I not surprised?" said Wolfwood as he patted Milly's belly with his 

hand. "That should've been done a long time ago." 

  


"It's late," said Doc. 

  


"Lets all get some sleep and we can talk about brain surgery tomorrow. I'm 

certainly not going to be operating on anyone tonight. Vash, Mr. Wolfwood can 

stay with you tonight." 

  


The old man looked over at Milly who was massaging the preacher's shoulders. "We 

can figure out future arrangements tomorrow." 

  


The four went down to their rooms. Milly and Wolfwood exchanged several kisses 

before entering their respective rooms. 

  


"This is a pretty nice place, Vash," Wolfwood said as he looked around the room. 

  


"Until yesterday my brother and I shared it." 

  


"Shit. You're not kidding are you?" 

  


"No. He had been getting a lot better, a lot better. He hadn't talked about 

wiping out the whole human race for at least a month."

"You're way too trusting, Vash." 

  


"I know." 

  


Vash lay down on his bed. 

  


"Did you know what he was doing with Meryl?" 

  


"I know." 

  


"How do you know that?" 

  


"Telepathy. He was talking to me that way." 

  


"I'm not sleeping in that man's bed." 

  


"Sleep on the floor." 

  


Vash threw him his blanket. Wolfwood took off his suit coat, lay on the floor 

and covered himself with the blanket. 

  


"Knives is one hell of a bastard. Do you know how I got her back?" 

  


"No." 

  


"I heard a woman screaming. I found the cave, went in. I thought it was you with some girl. It took a few punches, he's a tough bastard like you. If I knew it was him there's no way in hell I would've gone in there." 

  


"Thank you, Wolfwood." 

  


"He must have been too busy talking to you to notice me. No wonder you were a 

quivering lump when I saw you. You are more human than I thought you were." 

  


Vash didn't reply. 

  


"Why aren't you with that little insurance agent yet?" 

  


"It has something to do with a sixty billion double dollar bounty and a 

psychotic brother." 

  


"Meryl said all those trucks from the government came here. She said you and 

Knives were cleared from being Vash the Stampede. I would've been back sooner 

but I visited all the kids that were in my orphanage at the new places they were 

sent to. A lot of them found homes. A few kids are in Inepril. I thought I'd 

stop over here to see if you went back home and I saw the trucks. The government 

doesn't deal with dead men very well so I hid in the rocks. Damn good thing." 

  


"I'd like to get some sleep Wolfwood." 

  


"Do you want to know why I'm here at all?" 

  


"Yes."

"Because of Milly. Someone more powerful than you has a soft spot for her. Some 

very bad things would've happened to her if I hadn't been there. I got a deal 

with the great beyond. If I could keep you from doing anything real stupid I 

could come back. The clergy at that church kept me in a room until they got 

enough money for the burial. I was cold but I hadn't started to rot. They kept 

me around to see what happened. Two months later I walked out. Do you know what 

I was doing for those two months?" 

  


"No." 

  


"I was looking through your memories." 

  


Vash sat up in bed and looked at Wolfwood. 

  


"Stay the hell away from my memories, Wolfwood." 

  


"Too late. Vash, you need her and you know it. Rem isn't the only women who 

loved you." 

  


"Why did you get a chance to come back? Why didn't Rem.?" 

  


"I don't know, Vash." 

  


"She shouldn't of died because of us." 

  


"Nobody should've." 

  


"Why are you lucky enough to get a second chance with Milly?" 

  


Wolfwood could tell Vash was trying to hold back his tears. 

  


"Didn't I give you another chance with Meryl?" 

  


"I don't want to talk about this," Vash lay back down. 

"Goodnight, Wolfwood. You're getting your own room tomorrow." 

  


"Goodnight, Vash the Stampede." 

  


Meryl and Milly woke the men up at noon the next day. They brought them lunch 

and they all sat around the table filling each other in on the events of the 

past few months. Vash left as soon as they started coming up with names for the 

baby. He went up to Doc's room and told him the details of the Knives' surgery. 

Vash would have to make a different type of dampener for Knives. Vash worked the 

next week on finding and shaping the different metals to just the right 

thickness. He gave the finished iridescent strip of metal to Doc. Knives was 

given ten times the normal amount of anesthetic before the surgery. The thin 

metal strips were fastened to the inside of a small portion of his occipital 

bone. Knives was put immediately back in the sleep chamber after the surgery was 

completed. Vash slept a lot easier that night, especially now that Wolfwood and 

Milly had their own room. 

  


Meryl had written the final report on Vash the Stampede and mailed it out the 

week before. In it she thanked her boss for hiding their reports from inside the 

seeds ship. One of the few times the insurance girls left the ship was when they 

had to mail a letter. Meryl spent a lot of time with Milly and Wolfwood. 

Wolfwood assured Vash several times that he had gotten there before anything had 

happened. 

  


Vash spent most of his time repairing and restoring the recreation room. He 

thought about her often as he fixed worn out wiring and transplanted new 

varieties of flora to the room. Many different animal species had been able to 

survive in the recreation room even with minimal power. Humans were like that. 

They didn't need a lot of power to survive. Maybe she realized how terrible he 

could be if was just a little bit more like Knives. Maybe that's why she stayed 

away. Knives needed a month and a half for his head to heal and then Vash could 

put him where he could be happy. That was his priority now, making a 

Knives-proof recreation room. 

  


Wolfwood started to incorporate himself into the culture of the ship. He had 

already performed several wedding services and unfortunately one funeral. 

Fortunately for everyone on the ship, he'd stopped smoking. Being dead for two 

months had greatly reduced the nicotine cravings. After the funeral there had been an opening in the kitchen staff and Meryl had been accepted. Milly was back up in the nursery since she'd be spending a lot of time up there in a few months any way. For 

another week Vash didn't see Meryl except for a brief glance in the cafeteria as 

she doled out mashed potatoes or beans. He missed her, he actually missed her. 

That evening Meryl left Vash a message at his room: I'd like to come over and 

talk when you get in. Vash pushed a button on the intercom connecting their rooms. 

  


"Are you in, Meryl?" 

  


"I'll be right over," she said. 

  


Meryl entered his room a few minutes later and sat down at Vash's table. Vash 

joined her. 

  


"Milly and Wolfwood are playing another game of chess. I'd prefer figuring out a 

truckload of disaster claims than have to watch another move. Tomorrow's my day 

off from the kitchen. I'd like to help you more with the recreation room. I know 

we haven't had a lot of time to talk lately. How's the room coming?"

  


Meryl looked nervous as if she was waiting for him to snap at her. 

  


"It should be done this week, in four days, maybe. I have all the backup sets of 

wiring put in, the cameras are all working and the pond recycling system is 

working so if you could help transplanting a few dozen shrubs I could use the 

help. I do appreciate the company." 

  


"Sure." 

  


They looked at each other for a little while not saying anything. Then Meryl put 

her hand on his left arm right down by the wrist. 

  


"Milly and I got a reply from the chief today. He wants us both to head the 

training of new disaster investigators back in December. Milly wrote her 

resignation letter before the chess match. Wolfwood likes it here. She says 

Wolfwood is determined to win a chess game one of these days but from their last 

match that didn't look likely." 

  


"Milly's a smart on in her own special way, even when it comes to men. She found 

a good one," replied Vash. 

  


Meryl looked back at Vash's arm. She unbuttoned the cuff of his shirt sleeve and 

pushed the sleeve up to his elbow. 

  


"I never did get a chance to get a good look at your new arm." 

  


She rubbed her fingers against the skin. 

  


"It looks completely normal." 

  


"It is. I haven't felt any differences compared with my natural arm." 

  


Meryl turned his hand over and followed the line of his veins with her fingers 

gently massaging his arm. He looked into Meryl's eyes, his mouth drawn into a 

thin line. 

  


"It's an angel arm, just like my other one. You know that." 

Meryl reached over and rubbed Vash's chest near his heart. 

  


"That metal grate is gone." 

  


She stood up next to Vash still rubbing his chest as she put her other hand in 

his hair. 

  


"Still the same," she said and she leaned in front of him and kissed his lips. 

  


"You're not my job any more, Vash. I'm here because I want to be." 

  


She kissed him again and Vash returned the little woman's kiss. It really wasn't in his 

nature to turn down a woman. This one knew everything about him. He had nothing 

to hide from her. Vash pulled back from her and gathered her hands into his. 

"Please tell me you won't leave me. I never want you to leave me. I've lived 131 

years, Meryl, I don't know how much longer I'll live this way. It could be 

another 100 years or more. Do you think you can deal with me like this?" 

Meryl could see the fear in his eyes as they glossed over with tears. 

  


"Why wouldn't I want a kind, caring, gorgeous guy for as long as possible?" 

  


Vash smiled and kissed her lips. He scooped her up, placed her on his lap, and 

hugged her to his chest. Her head rested snugly against his shoulder. 

  


The two talked for a long while about Meryl's family and growing up on the 

planet surface. It was about four in the morning before Vash carried Meryl, sleeping back to her room. He laid her down on her bed, pulled the covers over her 

and left. 

  


A month and a half later Knives was ready to be transferred to the 

recreation room. Vash, James, Wolfwood, and Kevin carted the sleeping chamber to 

the room. Vash opened the large double doors and the men pushed the cart in. 

Vash lifted his sleeping brother out of the chamber and placed him on the grass. 

The men pushed the cart out and closed the doors behind him. Vash sat down on 

the outside of the outer door and looked at the camera monitors, waiting. 

Knives woke up surprisingly soon. Vash watched as his brother sat up and surveyed his new home. He was instantly transfixed by a brown creeper spiraling up a tree probing for insects. 

Knives sat there for a long time as the bird pecked at a beetle, caught it, and 

swallowed the wriggling insect. Knives decided right then he liked birds. Knives 

sat up and leaped at the next bird that flew above him. He caught a red-breasted 

nuthatch and poked at it as he held the squirming bird in his hand. Knives 

released it and ran after it hoping to find more. Vash sighed. Finally, a place 

where his brother could be captivated by other things than killing humans. He 

watched his brother on occasion for several days to see if he could adjust to living in the forest environment. It turned out that Knives was actually happy here, marking out the different territories of different animals with sticks and leaves and he was making a tally of all the different kinds of fish in the pond. There was enough food for him and the animals, and they seemed to get along. One evening Knives left Vash a message written with sticks on a field in front of one of the cameras at the edge of the room.

"No Humans."

  


Vash walked away from the monitors and returned to his separate life on the ship.

  


  


  


**** Author's note: This is where the story originally ended, but some people were rather unsatisfied with the ending, so I ended up writing more. 

  



End file.
